Prince Harry and six others lose privacy case vs Daily Mail

Prince Harry and six other high-profile claimants have lost a major privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. A High Court judge in London dismissed all claims on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, ruling the group failed to prove allegations of widespread unlawful information gathering by Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

Justice Matthew Nicklin delivered the 436-page judgment following an 11-week trial earlier this year. He concluded the claimants, who included Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, and former MP Sir Simon Hughes, could not rely on suspicion or inference to establish wrongdoing. The judge stated the court rejected the argument that private information appearing in print without an explained source automatically indicated illegal methods were used. He found legitimate and realistic pathways existed for the lawful sourcing of the approximately 50 articles in question, which were published between the 1990s and 2018.

The claimants had accused ANL of serious criminal activity, including phone hacking, landline tapping, bugging homes and cars, impersonating individuals to obtain medical...