Prince Harry has lost his privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, according to reporting on the matter. A judge dismissed all the claims of unlawful news gathering that had been brought against the newspaper, delivering a clear defeat for the Duke of Sussex in one of his legal battles with the British press.
Harry was not the only person behind the case. According to the account, he and six other high-profile claimants took the Daily Mail to court, joining together to pursue the same legal action against the publisher over how their private information had allegedly been handled.
The heart of the claim concerned how information about them was obtained. According to the reporting, the claimants accused the tabloid of illegally getting private information through means such as hacking and phone tapping, placing those alleged methods at the centre of the case.
The court, however, did not accept that argument. According to the account, the judge rejected the claims, indicating it was possible that the information had come from legitimate sources, which undercut the case the claimants had tried to build.
The outcome was welcomed on the other side. According to the reporting, the newspaper was triumphant after the ruling, and its former editors described Harry as a confused and angry young man, saying the case should never have been brought to trial in the first place.
The timing added to the attention around the decision. According to the account, it came on the second day of Harry's trip to the UK, putting him on the front pages as front-page news, though not in the way he would have hoped as he faced the fallout from the ruling.