Prince Harry lost a privacy lawsuit. But he could still get his royal family back.

Prince Harry is having a bad week — and the royal relatives ostracizing him aren’t looking great either.

Harry, the younger son of Britain’s King Charles III, and six other high-profile defendants lost a privacy case Tuesday against Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. A British judge dismissed all claims by the defendants, who included the singer Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, and actresses Sadie Frost and Elizabeth Hurley. They argued that the tabloids used unlawful tactics such as phone hacking to unearth details of their personal lives for articles published between 1993 and 2011.

In legal filings, Harry said it was “disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it.” Testifying emotionally in January, he called articles about his dating life “disgusting” and “creepy” and said it was “beyond cruel” to report “confidential discussions” he had after a photo of his dying mother was published in Italian media. “They continue to come after me,” he said of the tabloids. “They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”

The Mail publisher argued that the articles at issue were generated from lawful sources, such as information from aides, friends and publicists. In a statement summarizing the 400-plus-page ruling, Judge Matthew Nicklin of the UK High Court wrote that the claimants failed to prove “that the information complained of had been obtained unlawfully” and that “suspicion, even where understandable, was not enough.”

Harry has filed several lawsuits against British tabloid publishers alleging illegal methods of obtaining information. Previous efforts have met with better results. In December 2023, the prince won damages in a privacy lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, when a judge ruled his phone had been hacked. In 2025, Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers settled a lawsuit with the prince while admitting “unlawful” conduct by private investigators hired by the Sun, one of its tabloids. 

Media intrusiveness is deeply personal to Harry, who blames press aggression for the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in a 1997 car crash. He has likened media hounding of his American-born wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to his mother’s experience. Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal life in 2020; they now live in California with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Tuesday’s ruling emerged during the second of a five-day visit Harry is making to England to promote charities such as the Invictus Games. But the trip was already overshadowed by an unusually public spat between the prince and palace officials.

The short version: Harry announced he would travel to Britain. Then came reports that Meghan and the kids might go, too. Accommodation in a royal residence was reportedly offered. All four would travel to Britain, presuming they would be provided with police security — protection that was rescinded after Harry and Meghan moved away. Then came clarifications: Police security would not be provided outside of royal residences. Meghan and the kids would not go. Harry’s security team said there were terrorist threats. Harry would travel on his own. He had accepted the offer of royal accommodation.

Autumn Brewington

Autumn Brewington is a senior opinion editor at MS NOW. A longtime editor at The Washington Post, she oversaw the paper’s op-ed page for more than seven years. She also wrote a Post blog and newsletter about the British royal family. She writes about royalty on Substack at http://autumnbrewington.substack.com.