Prince Harry faces multi-million dollar legal bill after media battle defeat

The Duke of Sussex and other celebrity claimants who lost a privacy case against the publishers of the Daily Mail are facing a legal bill of more than £18 million ($34m).

The high-profile group, which includes King Charles’ youngest son, Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, are being asked to pay Associated Newspapers’ £34.5m ($65m) legal costs, described as “eye watering”.

The claimants’ insurance covers just £16.2m ($30m), leaving the group short £18.3m ($34m) short.

They are also being asked to pay an initial £10 million towards the total costs within 14 days, London’s High Court was told on Wednesday.

A two-day hearing is now underway to decide who will pay what legal costs for the 11-week trial.

The group sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) in 2022 over claims of unlawful information gathering including hacking, bugging and blagging.

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But in a ruling handed down earlier this month, judge Justice Nicklin dismissed in full all 97 claims against the publisher, stating there was no evidence.

Prince Harry later issued a statement attacking the judge and calling the 426-page ruling a “complete and obvious whitewash”.

Antony White KC, representing Associated Newspapers, told the court the public statement “sought − and achieved − global publicity for a continued allegation that Associated was in fact guilty of the wrongdoing alleged”.

ANL has applied for indemnity cover after arguing the claimant’s side acted unreasonably during the case. In that situation, the losing party must cover the other side’s charges without the need to show they were proportionate.

The publisher claims the “entirely inappropriate” statement from Prince Harry suggested that he “knew better than the judge”.

Lawyers for the Duke of Sussex and the other claimants described the costs incurred as “eye watering” and £18.6m ($34m) more than the budget agreed by the court before the start of the trial.

Nicholas Bacon KC said his clients had insurance £2.7m ($4m), totalling £16.2m ($30m), and that ANL had “overspent what they’d told us they’d actually spent”.

They were offering to pay close to £8m ($32m) by August 28, including £68,780 ($132k) relating to the bills linked to Harry’s individual claim.

He said: “The Duke of Sussex brought this claim in good faith. His evidence was accepted by the court [but] in the final analysis his evidence fell short of establishing his claim.”

Lawyers for the claimants added: “They have approached this litigation in good faith, under the burden of decades of intense, intrusive media scrutiny into their private lives.”

The total bill the claimants could face is yet to be decided.

Bacon said any application for permission to appeal the judgment had been deferred until after a ruling on the legal costs.

Prince Harry was last in the UK in early July when the court’s judgement was handed down, reuniting with his father King Charles days later at Highgrove House with Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and their two children.