Prince Harry has accused British tabloid The Mail on Sunday, of causing “serious damage to his reputation and substantial hurt, embarrassment and distress” to him, in the ongoing lawsuit filed against the publication.
The Duke of Sussex had sued The Mail on Sunday in February, after the tabloid published a series of articles that commented on his legal battle with the UK government, over the provision of security to his family and him.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle had applied for protection, after they had disclosed their plans to visit the British Royal Family, earlier this year.
The Duke, had argued that he had “inherited a security risk at birth”, and insisted that he had offered to pay for protection from Scotland Yard officers, but the offer had been declined. He also threatened to sue UK’s Home Office for refusing to provide security to his family and him, which has led him to apply for a judicial review against them.
But The Mail on Sunday claimed in its report that Prince Harry was lying over his offer to pay for his security, privately. The publication also alleged that he had tried to keep the details of the case away from the public-eye.
In the latest lawsuit from February, Prince Harry claimed that the articles “manipulate(d) and confuse(d) public opinions” against the prince, and “put out false and misleading statements about his willingness to pay for police protection.”
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Further, the article went on to mention how he had been secretive about his legal battle over protection, until his PR team tried to “put a positive spin on the dispute” when the news was first published by MoS. Prince Harry’s lawyers argued that this “constitutes an attack on his honesty and integrity and undermines his fitness to be involved both in charitable and philanthropic work in general, and in efforts to tackle online misinformation in particular (through the Archewell Foundation).”
Both Harry and Meghan have been embroiled in multiple legal battles with British tabloids.
In 2020, the couple had filed a lawsuit against The Mail On Sunday, for the misuse of Markle’s private information and a breach of copyright, after it had published a large portion of the handwritten letter she had sent her father, Thomas Markle, in 2019.
In December 2021, the Court of Appeal in London ruled in favour of Markle and granted the Duchess of Sussex copyright claims to the letter.