Prince Harry to seek Mail on Sunday Newspaper libel win without trial, says lawyer

Prince Harry will on Friday seek to win his defamation claim against publisher Associated Newspapers without the case going to trial, his lawyer said, as the British royal steps up his legal battles against the tabloid press.

His lawyers has confirmed to news agency Reuters that they would ask the judge Matthew Nicklin at a hearing on Friday to give a summary judgment - a ruling in his favour without the need for a trial.

Last year, Harry had sued Associated Newspapers over an article in its Mail on Sunday newspaper which alleged that he tried to keep secret details of his separate legal fight with Britain’s government over his security arrangements.

In December, Prince Harry and Associated Newspapers had agreed a temporary pause in his libel claim to try to settle the case. Prior to that in July, the London's High Court ruled that the Mail report was defamatory, paving the way for Harry to take the case forward against one of Britain’s biggest media publishers.

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The article said Harry, 38, had tried to keep secret details of his legal fight to reinstate his police protection - which was withdrawn after he stepped back from royal duties in 2020 - and that his aides had then tried to put a positive spin on it.

Two years ago, Harry's American wife Meghan, 41, also had won a summary judgment in her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday for printing parts of a handwritten letter she had sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

The couple have become embroiled in numerous court cases against tabloid papers since the time of their 2018 marriage, accusing them of racism, hounding them, and spreading lies.

Media intrusion was part of the reason they cited for stepping back from royal duties and moving to California to forge new lives and careers.

In his memoir "Spare" and in the couple's six-part Netflix documentary series, Harry focused heavily on the press, with accusations that other royals had been complicit in newspaper stories.

There has been no response from Buckingham Palace or other royals to those remarks.

Harry, officially known as the Duke of Sussex, also told one TV interview in January that he hoped his legal action would help reform the media, adding that his father had described that as "probably a suicide mission".

Later this month, there is due to be a hearing in another case he has brought with singer Elton John and others against Associated Newspapers over allegations of phone-tapping and other privacy breaches.

Prince Harry's lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror newspaper over allegations of phone hacking will go to trial in May. He is one of several public figures whose lawsuits against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) will be considered at the trial. Apart from this, he is also suing News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the now-defunct News of the World and The Sun, also for alleged phone-hacking.

(With inputs from Reuters)