A £34.5 Million Legal Bill.. Prince Harry vs. the Daily Mail

Prince Harry and six other high-profile claimants have lost their privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline. After a 46-day trial, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all of the claimants’ allegations, ruling that they had failed to prove that specific articles or incidents resulted from phone hacking, deception, corrupt payments, or other unlawful information gathering. The judge stressed that suspicion and the private nature of published information were not enough to establish how journalists had obtained it.

In this episode of You Can’t Unhear, we examine what Harry and the other claimants alleged, why the court rejected their evidence, how private investigator Gavin Burrows complicated their case, and the enormous legal-cost dispute now unfolding. Associated Newspapers says its costs have reached approximately £34.5 million, while the claimants’ litigation insurance reportedly covers about £16 million. The claimants are considering an appeal, but the court has delayed deciding permission until the costs dispute is resolved.