It’s not looking so hot for Prince Harry in court…
As we’ve been following, the Duke of Sussex is in the middle of several lawsuits against various tabloids, including Daily Mail‘s publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd. And it’s in this case that he’s reached an unfortunate hiccup.
On Monday, a judge ruled that the Archewell founder has to pay £48,447 (that’s around $60,927!!!) in legal fees to the publisher after losing a bid to have the libel case decided without a trial. Oof!
The 39-year-old is suing the Mail on Sunday over an article that said he tried to hide his efforts to retain publicly funded protection in the U.K. after leaving his role as a senior working member of the royal family. As Perezcious readers know, Haz has been fighting for more security protections for his family in his home country — a guaranteed right he lost when he left his royal duties behind.
In the controversial piece published in February 2022 (HERE), the Mail on Sunday reported that the Invictus Games founder’s camp had told journalists that he launched legal action about his security after an offer to pay for his own police detail was refused. But the article then claimed no offer had ever been made to the Home Office or the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures until later and that Harry’s “spin doctors” had tried to influence the narrative of the story.
But in his legal battle, Meghan Markle‘s husband claimed the article was “fundamentally inaccurate” and defamed him by suggesting he lied in his initial public statements. In his most recent failed court challenge, his team had been campaigning for the newspaper’s defense to be thrown out, suggesting it “rests upon two provably false premises” relating to a press release by the Spare author at the time.
But on Friday, Justice Matthew Nicklin decided in the High Court in London that the publisher has a “real prospect” of showing that statements made on Harry’s behalf were misleading and that the article reflected an “honest opinion” and wasn’t libelous. The judge added in a written order:
“The defendant may well submit that this was a masterclass in the art of ‘spinning.’”
A libel trial, expected to last three to four days, will be scheduled somewhere between May 17 and July 31. Harry is expected to pay up by December 29, per the Washington Times.
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