Prince Harry v Mirror Group Newspapers: Everything you need to know about the Duke of Sussex’s court case
The Duke of Sussex’s court case, against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily Mirror, began in May.
The joint lawsuit, over accusations of historical phone-hacking, started just a few days after his father was crowned King.
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Prince Harry gave evidence in person in June.
Mirror Group has denied the allegations, some of which relate to when Piers Morgan was the Mirror’s editor.
The journalist and presenter has since become a vocal critic of the prince and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex.
It’s the latest of multiple cases brought against the tabloid press by Harry and Meghan over the last few years, and this is just one of several cases Prince Harry is currently involved in.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Michael Le Vell plays Kevin Webster in Coronation Street
Who’s involved?
The Duke of Sussex v Mirror Group Newspapers took place at the High Court in London. The Honourable Mr Justice Fancourt was the judge presiding over the case.
Prince Harry was cross-examined over the allegations and criticised ex-Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who led the paper from 1995 to 2004.
Morgan hit back at Harry saying: “I wish him luck with his privacy campaign and look forward to reading about it in his next book.”
Harry’s appearance in the witness box made him the first senior royal to give evidence in a courtroom since the 19th Century.
While Prince Harry was one of the key players, as a group litigation he was not the only claimant.
The 38-year-old royal brought the action along with others including former Girls Aloud bandmate Cheryl, actor Ricky Tomlinson, ex-footballer and TV presenter Ian Wright and the estate of the late singer George Michael.
Other claimants selected for the trial were former Coronation Street stars Michael Le Vell and Nikki Sanderson, comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman and model Paul Sculfor.
David Sherborne was the lawyer representing Prince Harry.
Daily Mirror
Who are Mirror Group Newspapers?
Mirror Group Newspapers is part of the publisher Reach, which is one of Britain’s biggest newspaper groups.
Previously known as Trinity Mirror, Reach owns multiple national papers including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, local newspapers including the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo, and the magazine OK!
The company’s headquarters is based at Canary Wharf in London.
What’s alleged?
The lawsuit alleges that unlawful information was gathered on behalf of MGN journalists between 1996 and 2011.
MGN contested the claims and argued that some had been brought too late. Mirror Group previously accepted that phone hacking took place at its titles, and paid hundreds of millions of pounds in settlements to victims.
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Lawyers for the claimants said Harry’s case relates to a number of articles published between 1996 and 2011 including information that was allegedly obtained through unlawful means, such as phone hacking.
They said his family and friends – including King Charles and late TV presenter Caroline Flack – were also illegally targeted.
While 148 articles were initially flagged to the court by Harry’s team, only around 33 articles were considered at trial.
The prince launched the case back in 2019, but it only came to court this year.
What is phone hacking?
Phone hacking involved intercepting private voicemail messages on another person’s device. This could be done remotely, and all it required was knowing someone’s mobile number.
The hack would be carried out by ringing the number and letting it go through to voicemail – if the phone was answered, the hacker would hang up.
But once through to voicemail, the hacker would have to guess the individual’s PIN number, if they had one – which wasn’t as difficult as you might think as many people left the PIN set to the default of “0000” or “1234”.
The hacker could then listen to voicemails left on that person’s phone, writing down what was said or recording longer messages for transcribing later.
Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson
What was the Leveson Inquiry and why is it relevant?
In 2011, Judge Sir Brian Leveson led a public inquiry after it was revealed News Of The World journalists had hacked the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler.
Initially intended to be carried out in two sections, the first part of the Leveson Inquiry looked at the culture, practices and ethics of the press. It involved celebrities including Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller, Steve Coogan and Charlotte Church.
Part two of the Leveson Inquiry was meant to investigate the relationship between journalists and the police, but never took place. There have since been calls to re-open the uncompleted inquiry, with activists including those from the Hacked Off campaign saying such cases as this show wrongdoing within some newspapers is still taking place.
Harry has several cases against Associated Newspapers – publishers of the Daily Mail
What other legal action has Prince Harry taken?
Harry and Meghan have filed at least seven lawsuits against British and American media outlets since 2019, and the prince has pursued four cases against UK tabloids.
The royal is one of a group of high-profile figures who alleged unlawful information gathering at Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline.
The publisher denies the allegations, which include phone-tapping and bugging people’s homes. The lawsuit also involves Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost and the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence – Baroness Doreen Lawrence.
In a second libel case against ANL over an article about his security arrangements Harry was ordered to pay the Mail on Sunday more than £48,000 after he lost his claim.
He has a separate legal fight against the Home Office over the same protection issues.
And Prince Harry also sued News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers (as well as the now-defunct News of the World) for alleged phone-hacking.
The High Court ruled in July that Harry could not sue NGN for alleged phone-hacking and rejected his argument that there was a secret deal between the publisher and senior royals.
However, the remainder of Harry’s battle against News Group is set for 2025.
Why is Prince Harry doing this?
Prince Harry’s hatred of the British tabloid press is well-documented – he has written about it at length in his memoir Spare and spoken about it in numerous resulting TV interviews.
He has said he blames the paparazzi for the part they played in his mother’s death and vented his frustration at the “injustice” of no one being sent to jail following the inquest into the car crash that killed her.
He has also said that media intrusion was part of the reason he and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to America.
Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties in 2020. Pic: Netflix
Just this year Prince Harry accused members of his family of getting into bed with the devil – the tabloid press – to sully him and his wife Meghan to improve their own reputations.
He has previously described the British tabloid press as “the mothership of online trolling”, and says he is exposing alleged media wrongdoing “to save journalism as a profession”.
The prince says it’s his “life’s work” to change the British “media landscape”, making it more accountable for its actions. With a high profile and deep pockets, it’s a mission he’s started in earnest.
It remains to be seen whether the tell-all interviews, a revealing memoir and now numerous court cases assist Prince Harry in his crusade against the media, or simply fuel the fire he says he is so keen to put out.
Entertainment
Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness have bought a cinema the Oscar-winning actor used to visit as a child.
The couple will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, County Kerry, south-west Ireland, next year.
The venue, which had previously been used as a dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and on the market for three before Murphy and McGuinness bought the building.
Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, from Cork, said: “I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays.
“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”
McGuinness added: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”
Murphy won big this awards season. Pic: AP
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The Phoenix is the only cinema in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, and without it, the closest other movie theatre for residents of the town is in Tralee, almost 30 miles away.
It opened in 1919 and was reconstructed twice in the decades that followed, after fires damaged the building.
Its previous owners struggled to keep The Phoenix going amid the COVID-19 pandemic and shut the cinema’s doors in November 2021, citing rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.
Murphy took awards season by storm this year, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar for his performance as the titular character in Oppenheimer.
Next year, he will reprise one of his most well-known roles by playing Tommy Shelby in a movie version of Peaky Blinders.
Ed Sheeran helped Ipswich Town to sign a player over the summer just before getting on stage with Taylor Swift, according to the club’s chief executive.
Mark Ashton claims the pop star got on a video call to encourage a prospective new signing to seal his move to the East Anglia outfit.
He did not reveal the player’s name, but said he is “certainly scoring a few goals” and is a fan of Sheeran, who is a minor shareholder at his hometown club.
“Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift,” Ashton told a Soccerex industry event in Miami.
“Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.”
Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium. Pic: Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images
Sheeran and pop icon Swift were on stage together on 15 August at Wembley Stadium, one day before Sammie Szmodics signed from Blackburn.
After scoring an overhead kick in Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Tottenham this month, he shared a picture of himself with Sheeran on Instagram.
“Overhead kick, Win & a smudge with big ed. GET IN THERE,” Szmodics wrote alongside the post.
Ashton joked Sheeran is now “officially a part of our recruitment team”, adding he is a “local man” and “global superstar”.
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Sheeran has been the club’s shirt sponsor since 2021 and is regularly seen at matches at the club’s Portman Road stadium.
Ipswich host giants Manchester United on Sunday, a match that’s particularly notable for being Ruben Amorim‘s first game in charge of the Red Devils.
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