Prince Harry’s long feud with the media rages on.
Since 2019, Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, have launched nearly a dozen lawsuits, per Newsweek. Harry remains knee-deep in several legal battles — but his family takes priority over his war against the media.
Harry was expected in court on Monday for his lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers but he was a no-show. Apparently he was at home in California celebrating his daughter Lilibet’s birthday.
“The Duke of Sussex is attending tomorrow (Tuesday, June 6) to give evidence. He flew yesterday evening from Los Angeles. He was attending his daughter’s birthday,” David Sherborne, Harry’s attorney, told the court, per Newsweek.
Attorneys for the Mirror Group Newspapers accused Harry of “wasting” the court’s time, calling it “absolutely extraordinary … that he is not available for day one of his own trial” before making their opening statements, per The Washington Post.
Following his split from the monarchy, Harry has publicly spoken out about the media’s role in his decision to step away from his role and a working role.
During a “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper, Harry claimed Buckingham palace was involved in “leaking and planting of stories against me and my wife.”
Harry recognizes that changing the media “may be incredibly hard, and I don’t know how long it is going to take, but it is 100% worth it,” he said during an ITV interview with Tom Bradby.
Harry is “happy with (the media) talking crap about me every single day because I know it is not true, but what I draw the line at is when you are inciting hatred on myself and on my wife and on my children,” he added.
Why is Prince Harry suing Mirror Group Newspapers?
Prince Harry and more than 100 other public figures allege that Mirror Group Newspapers’ journalists unlawfully gathered private information on them through phone hacking, reports Reuters.
The claimants believe that journalists accessed the voicemails of their targets by exploiting a gap in phone security. Listening to messages from friends and relatives provided the journalists with confidential information.
Journalists allegedly hired private investigators to trick people into providing them with confidential information, such as financial statements and medical records, reports the BBC.
The claimants called the journalist’s alleged information gathering methods “wrongdoing for cynical commercial reasons,” per the BBC.
According to Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, the claims against Mirror Group Newspapers — which span from 1995 to 2011 — are “significant not just in terms of time span but in the range of activity it covers,” per CNN.
Harry was victim to “intrusive methods of obtaining personal information,” Sherborne added, arguing that “no one should be subjected to that,” per CNN. The “unlawful methods” were “habitual and widespread” among journalists and editors, Sherborne said.
“It was a flood of illegality,” Sherborne said, per The Associated Press. “But worse, this flood was being approved by senior executives, managing editors and members of the board.”
Prince Harry is suing the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers
Prince Harry is also involved in a libel suit against the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers.
He claims the Mail on Sunday wrote a “fundamentally inaccurate” article alleging the prince lied in his initial public statements about his legal bid to pay for police protection, per AP.
In July, a judge in High Court London ruled that the article was defamatory. Harry is waiting on a response from his application to have the case ruled on his favor without having to take it to trial, per Reuters.
Harry claims News Group Newspapers used illegal information gathering
Prince Harry is in a legal battle against the publisher of the Sun newspaper — News Group Newspapers — over allegations of unlawful news gathering methods.
He claims that since he was a teenager, private investigators and journalists with the Sun intruded into his personal life through illegal means, per the BBC.
According to Harry, there were more than 100 payments made by the Sun to private investigators to uncover information on him — especially regarding his romantic relationships — and that several stories resulted from phone hacking, per The Guardian.
News Group Newspapers denies all claims.
Prince Harry’s American visa is in question
The U.S. government will appear in court this week to answer questions regarding Prince Harry’s visa application, after he admitted to drug use on U.S and foreign soil in his memoir, “Spare.”
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is demanding to see Harry’s American visa application, arguing it is of “immense public interest,” per the New York Post. The foundation also filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to further compel the the Department of Homeland Security to release the application to the public.
So far, the DHS has refused to share Harry’s visa application with the public. The Department of Homeland Security and the Heritage Foundation will face off in court on June 6, according to a tweet from Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation.
“United States law generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry into the United States. Intense media coverage has also surfaced the question of whether DHS may have improperly granted the Duke of Sussex a waiver to enter the country on a non-immigrant visa given his history of admissions to the essential elements of drug offenses,” read a complaint from the Heritage Foundation, per CBS News.
Harry admitted to using marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs in his memoir “Spare” as well as during several TV interviews promoting the book, reports The Telegraph.
Foreign immigrants seeking a U.S. visa or permanent resident status are required to answer questions about previous drug use. According to U.S. law, any applicant “determined to be a drug abuser” is deemed “inadmissible,” according to the New York Post.
While immigration officials are permitted to make exceptions to these rules, Harry’s admission to past drug use brings up questions about whether he answered questions on the visa application truthfully or if exceptions were made on his behalf.
“Did DHS in fact look the other way, play favorites, or fail to appropriately respond to any potential false statements by Prince Harry?” the Heritage Foundation said in a statement Tuesday, per the The Telegraph.
Last month, Harry lost his legal challenge to pay for high-level security
When Prince Harry voluntarily parted ways with his royal duties in 2020, he gave up his high-level security privileges. But Harry and Meghan remained high-profile figures in need of security.
While at their home base in California, Harry and Meghan pay out-of-pocket for their own security.
But Harry has said he does not feel safe visiting Britain with his two young children: Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 2. He wanted security of the caliber he received as a royal. Harry hoped he could pay for high-level security from trained British police officers with access to U.K. intelligence, reports The Washington Post.
He sued the British government for withdrawing his security detail.
“Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life,” read a statement from Harry’s legal bid to pay for police protection, per Newsweek.
Last month, Harry lost his legal challenge to pay for high-level security. It remains a privilege exclusive to senior royals.
“It is wrong for a policing body to place officers in harm’s way upon payment of a fee by a private individual,” read a Metropolitan Police court filing, per Newsweek.
“To allow an individual to pay for protective security would create a precedent in which other wealthy individuals could argue that they too should be permitted to pay for such services.”