Harry Wanted the Court to Feel His 'Personal Impact' — But It Ultimately Didn't Matter, Judge Says
Prince Harry confessed the emotional toll that the unlawful information gathering had taken on his life but it eventually didn't count into the verdict.
Prince Harry’s explosive legal battle against Associated Newspapers for unlawful information gathering has finally wrapped up. However, the outcome has not been in his favor. The Duke of Sussex lost the case after fighting for four years. And while he will be saddled with hefty legal costs, the case carried a heavier emotional weight for the prince. Justice Nichlin claimed in the ruling that Harry “wished” for the court to understand the “personal impact” of the matter. But at the end of the trial, it seemingly did not matter.
Justice Nichlin claimed that at times Harry advanced into “arguments” with Associated Newspapers’ lawyer, Antony White KC, instead of “giving factual evidence”. The judge further added that many people “feel a strong instinct to argue their case themselves”. And although it did not affect the “quality” of Harry’s evidence, the evidence in itself was “limited”. The court ruling said that claimants, including the prince, couldn’t prove their claims of unlawful acquisition of information in court
When Harry took the stand in January this year, he recounted the personal toll that the Daily Mail articles had taken on his life. The Duke had submitted 14 articles published by the newspaper between 2001 and 2013 that he alleged were based on information collected by breaching voicemails. The majority of the filed articles were about his relationship with his then girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, who was first identified by the Daily Mail. “Their behavior and treatment of Chelsy was not normal," he said via the BBC, "I was really worried something bad was going to happen.” Harry added that Davy, on her part, felt like she was “being hunted”.
A particularly salacious article published by the Daily Mail in 2006 claimed that Davy did not want Harry to join the Army. The prince said that it “added pressure and created a massive strain” on their relationship and caused Davy to “distrust all of her friends”. He even went a step further, accusing the publisher of wanting to probably push him “to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers”. The Duke further added that he was “paranoid beyond belief” and felt like a “part of an endless pursuit, a campaign, an obsession of having every aspect” of his life “under surveillance”.
However, Harry’s romantic relationships were not the only ones that made it to tabloid headlines. In 2006, his and Prince William’s reactions to an Italian newspaper's release of a picture of Princess Diana’s car crash were also published by the Daily Mail. Although Harry confessed that he didn’t remember reading the article, the “disgusting” piece made him think, “If Associated was willing to publish this type of material, then it really makes me wonder how far they are prepared to go.”
Although the case didn’t concern any material published about his wife, Meghan Markle, he was visibly emotional when he revealed her life had been made an “absolute misery” by the newspaper. On the stand, his voice broke when he said that the legal battle had been a “horrible experience” for his family and all he was looking for was “an apology and some accountability”.
