Prince Harry is now in his seventh year of “suing the pants off of the British tabloids.” In that time, I’ve learned vicariously through Harry’s lawsuits. One of the biggest and most interesting lessons is that when Harry is suing all of these people and going about it in a straight-forward way, it becomes an international hard-news story, covered by sober, intelligent media/political journalists and legal analysts. And that scares the sh-t out of the British tabloids. The last thing they want is for one of Harry’s cases to make it to the front page of the New York Times. They can’t stand when their lies and royalist narratives escape containment. But that’s exactly what will happen next week, when Harry arrives in London and testifies on one of the first days of his trial against the Mail. From Reuters:

Britain’s Prince Harry is due to give evidence at London’s High Court next Thursday in his and other high-profile British figures’ privacy lawsuits against the publisher of the Daily Mail, his lawyers said on Thursday. It will be the prince’s second such court date in three years, having become the first British royal to give evidence in 130 years in 2023 in another lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers.

In next week’s case, Harry, the younger son of King Charles, and six others including singer Elton John, are suing Associated Newspapers over alleged unlawful information gathering dating back 30 years.

Associated rejects any wrongdoing by its titles, saying there is no basis to any of what it describes as the claimants’ “preposterous smears” against its journalists. The nine-week trial starts on Monday and will see Harry, John and the other claimants – including John’s husband David Furnish and actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost – give evidence as they seek to prove their case against Associated.

Harry will be in the witness box on January 22, according to a draft trial timetable made public on Thursday. John and Furnish are due to give evidence in February but will seek to do so remotely, their lawyers said.

The case against Associated is the last outstanding case brought by Harry and his U.S. wife Meghan against media organisations since 2019, in what he has described as his mission to rid the British press of senior executives and editors he accuses of abusing their power.

Associated unsuccessfully applied to throw out Harry and the cases because they had been brought too late, with the High Court ruling in 2023 that the lawsuit should proceed to trial. However, that issue is still likely to form part of the arguments at the trial.

[From Reuters]

“…What it describes as the claimants’ “preposterous smears” against its journalists…” Well, the Mail would know all about preposterous smears! What’s crazy is that Harry isn’t even suing the Mail for anything they’ve written RECENTLY. In the past seven, eight years, the Mail has written, promoted and nurtured eleventy billion preposterous smears against the Sussexes, but that’s not why Harry is suing them. This time. Anyway, it’s exciting to know when Harry will testify. He’s such a badass, as are the other claimants (especially Elton, who is a real one). The tabloids are going to freak out when the international media covers this trial and Harry’s testimony specifically.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.