{"id":576653,"date":"2026-08-22T07:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576653\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:08:12","slug":"prince-harry-and-others-to-pay-daily-mail-at-least-21m-in-legal-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576653\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Harry and others to pay Daily Mail at least $21m in legal bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Harry<\/a> and six others, including Elton John, have been ordered to pay an initial 9.5 million pounds (NZ$21.6 million) to the publisher of Britain\u2019s Daily Mail newspaper following their failed invasion of privacy case<\/a> \u2014 and could face an additional 25 million pounds (NZ$57 million) in legal costs.<\/p>\n

In a judgment Friday, Justice Matthew Nicklin said in a written statement that the payment to Associated Newspapers Ltd. will have to be made by August 28. The payment is at the upper end of expectations and marks a vindication for the journalists at the Daily Mail and a defeat for the losing claimants and their lawyers.<\/p>\n

The claimants lost a High Court case in London last month during which they had alleged malpractice, such as the illegal hacking of phones, on the part of Associated Newspapers.<\/p>\n

The other high-profile figures behind the case were Doreen Lawrence, the anti\u2011racism activist whose son Stephen was stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus; Elton John\u2019s film producer husband David Furnish; actors Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley; and politician Simon Hughes. Lawrence\u2019s costs are expected to be covered by the others.<\/p>\n

Prince Harry among public figures now facing millions in legal bills – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

In excoriating comments accompanying his award, Nicklin said \u201cseveral features\u201d were important in his decision, including the \u201cspeculative\u201d nature of the claims and the failure of the claimants to \u201cvoluntarily\u201d withdraw serious allegations that could no longer be backed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conduct was unreasonable to a high degree,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Claimants face additional 25-million-pound charge<\/p>\n

The publisher has said it incurred more than 34 million pounds (NZ$77 million) during the case. Should it pursue the claimants for the remainder of the costs, and get the necessary legal approval to do so, then Harry and the six others will be liable for a further 25 million pounds (NZ$57 million) or so.<\/p>\n

The claimants took out insurance for around half of that total, in line with the budget estimates provided at the outset by the lawyers working for Associated Newspapers.<\/p>\n

Though the judge said the costs appeared \u201cexcessive\u201d, he said he would not impose a cap that would have limited the claimants’ liabilities as it would have been \u201ctoo broad brushed, would risk unfairness, and would be vulnerable to the charge that it was arbitrary”. <\/p>\n

\"Elton<\/p>\n

Elton John was among those ordered to pay an initial $21 million to the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper. (Source: Bang Showbiz)<\/p>\n

The amount that will be paid could well be determined in the future by costs judges, specialists who assess and determine financial outcomes in civil litigation when parties cannot agree.<\/p>\n

David Bailey-Vella, chairman of the Association of Costs Lawyers, said the ruling \u201ccould not have gone much worse\u201d for the claimants.<\/p>\n

He said the claimants will “surely try again before the costs judges to try and show they relied on Associated\u2019s original budget when buying the insurance and so should not have to pay more\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hughes, a former member of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said he was \u201cdisappointed and surprised\u201d that Associated Newspapers\u2019 recoverable costs were not limited.<\/p>\n

None of the other claimants have yet commented on the judge’s decision. They have until October 2 to decide whether to appeal.<\/p>\n

Harry and the rest had failed to even win one of 97 claims<\/p>\n

The publisher had strongly denied the claims made during the 11-week trial in London earlier this year. In his July 7 judgement, Nicklin said there had been a shortage of evidence to support the 97 claims and found there was a possibility that the reporting came from legitimate sources.<\/p>\n

In a statement following the decision, Associated Newspapers said the judgement is a \u201cdevastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that these outrageous claims should never have been brought,” it said. “That they were pursued raises disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cost verdict comes days after Harry’s bombshell UK return news<\/p>\n

The judgment comes two days after it was made public that Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, are moving back to the UK The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are no longer working royals, decamped to California more than six years ago but will relocate back later this month to live in a nonroyal residence outside London.<\/p>\n

Harry’s defeat against Associated Newspapers brought an end to a trio of lawsuits accusing tabloid publishers of using unlawful tactics, such as phone hacking or hiring private detectives to dig up dirt on his life.<\/p>\n

Harry won a judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for \u201cwidespread and habitual\u201d phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch\u2019s flagship UK tabloid, The Sun, made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life for years and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Harry has said his litigation \u2014 in which he broke with royal family tradition to seek relief in the courts \u2014 was a primary source of his falling out with his father, King Charles III, and brother Prince William.<\/p>\n

His grudge with the tabloids runs deep, and his legal actions are part of his larger quest to reform the news media that he says damaged his relationships and made him \u201c paranoid beyond belief\u201d.<\/p>\n

He blames the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, and for attacks on his wife, Meghan, that led the couple to abandon royal life and move to the United States in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Harry and six others, including Elton John, have been ordered to pay an initial 9.5 million pounds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,3578,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-576653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-prince-harry","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}