Prince Harry made his second appearance in London on Tuesday morning as he arrived at court for day two of the hearing in his case against Associated Newspapers.
Associated Newspapers, a U.K. media company that owns publications like the Daily Mail, has been accused by Harry, along with other celebrities like Elizabeth Hurley, Elton John’s husband David Furnish and Sadie Frost, of hacking phones to obtain information.
This hearing, which is expected to last four days in total, focuses on Associated Newpapers’ attempt to get the case thrown out entirely.
The media company’s defense is not simply that the claims are false, but also that the claims are old and that much of the information against them had already been confidentially disclosed in a 2012 case regarding media lawbreaking.
Britain’s Prince Harry arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London, Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Associated Press)
Their attorney, Adrian Beltrami, wrote that “It would be surprising indeed for any reasonably informed member of the public, let alone a figure in the public eye, to have been unaware of these matters.”
While the plaintiffs’ attorney, David Sherborne, admits that many of the alleged violations took place between 1993 and 2011, others happened in 2018 and even later.
Sherborne claimed that Associated Newpapers’ wrongdoings were “habitual and widespread” and then “concealed and covered up.”
Prince Harry is one of many celebrities suing Associated Newspapers for invading their privacy. (The Associated Press)
In addition to being accused of hacking phone calls, the lawsuit suggests that the company claimed to have obtained information from anonymous sources to hide behind the real source of information.
Among the allegations in court papers were that Associated Newspapers unlawfully obtained the birth certificate of John and Furnish’s child before they saw the document and illegally gleaned information on Harry’s previous relationship with Chelsy Davy, a jewelry designer from Zimbabwe.
The publisher is also alleged to have hired a private investigator to hack Hurley’s phone, stuck a mini-microphone on a window outside her home and bugged ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant’s car to gather financial information, travel plans and medical information during her pregnancy.
Prince Harry waves to onlookers as he arrives to court on Tuesday. (Associated Press)
This lawsuit is one of many that Harry is waging against the British press.
In fact, he currently has another lawsuit against Associated Newspapers – one for defamation.
Harry took issue with a Mail on Sunday article titled “Exclusive: How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then – just minutes after the story broke – his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute.”
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Associated Newspapers is accused of hacking celebrities’ phones. (Associated Press)
Prince Harry claimed Mail on Sunday’s implication that the Duke of Sussex lied in his initial statements regarding the security lawsuit libeled him.
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The last hearing in that case was earlier this month. No verdict has been given.
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report.
