Prince Harry is faced with an eyewatering bill following the loss he faced earlier this month in the phone hacking case against The Daily Mail’s publisher.
On Wednesday, the case returned to court for a two-day trial to finalise the legal costs from the Duke of Sussex and fellow claimants – Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost and Sir Simon Hughes.
Given that it was a high-profile case, the costs were expected to go over £50 million. The High Court had dismissed the case as the claims appeared more “speculative” and did not have a “permissible approach”.
As the case returned to court, Harry and the six other claimants have received a demand of £10 million for initial payment. The court heard that Associated Newspapers’ costs were around £34 million.
The sum is subject to “reasonableness” test.
The claimants’ lawyer, David Sherborne, hit back at the “astonishingly high” bill noting that they are trying to “teach the claimants a lesson”. The legal team urged that the cost should not be condoned by the court.
“It would have a particularly harsh impact on the seven individual claimants in these proceedings, who will bear personal liability for Associated’s costs in excess of their [insurance] cover,” Harry’s lawyer said. “They have approached this litigation in good faith, under the burden of decades of intense, intrusive media scrutiny into their private lives.”
2026-07-30 10:13:00
