Prince Harry Loses His Legal Battle with the Daily Mail

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A High Court judge in the UK today ruled in favor of Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) — parent company of the Daily Mail — in their long-running legal dispute with Prince Harry.

As reported by the Independent, Harry, along with Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, actors Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, and politician Sir Simon Hughes, accusing the publisher of landline tapping and obtaining information by deception — also known as “blagging” — carried out by private investigators, freelance journalists, and ANL staff.

During the 11-week trial which took place earlier this year, Harry said that ANL had “made my wife’s life an absolute misery” and recounted intrusions on the private life of his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy by members of the same newspaper group.

In his 436-page judgement, Justice Nicklin said that he accepted the denials and testimonies of the 40 or so former and current Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists, editors, and executives who took to the witness stand over the course of the trial and that Harry and the group had “failed to prove their pleaded allegations of unlawful information gathering” by the ANL.

The publisher called the High Court ruling an “overwhelming victory” and a “magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism.”

Riiiiight… “journalism.”