What now for the Duke of Sussex? Can he pick himself up and carry on in the wake of such a humiliating legal defeat?
He plans to do just that. A bullish Prince Harry has pledged to put his High Court defeat behind him this week and to shift the focus to his charity work.
Where he goes from here, whether he fights on and appeals against the ruling or bows out and closes this chapter of his life – his media litigation era, if you will – remains to be seen.
The Duke has not discussed whether to appeal with David Sherborne, his barrister, and is not expecting to have any further contact with him this week, The Telegraph understands.
Instead, he has told his team to keep the show on the road, to get on with the UK visit and what they are here to do, which is primarily to promote the one-year countdown to the Invictus Games in Birmingham in 2027.
One source said he was “determined not to let the ruling further overshadow his charity engagements”. He was unlikely to spend any more time assessing his next steps until he returned home, they insisted.
The Duke has 21 days to ask the court for permission to appeal, so there is plenty of time for him to sit down and absorb it all when this week’s work is behind him.
It was unfortunate that the High Court picked this week, of all weeks, to hand down its long-awaited ruling in the privacy claim brought by the Duke and others against Associated Newspapers Limited.
Team Sussex would have preferred any other week, any other day in fact, than the one that clashed with his first public engagement in the UK in 10 months.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk ’
