<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 Millions of dollars are on the line as Prince Harry returns to court this week for the\u2026<\/p>\n
LONDON (AP) \u2014 Millions of dollars are on the line as Prince Harry<\/a> returns to court this week for the third and final chapter that starts Monday in his legal quest to tame the British tabloids.<\/p>\n The Duke of Sussex is the lead litigant in a case full of high-profile plaintiffs who accuse the publisher of the Daily Mail of invading their privacy by using unlawful information-gathering tactics to snoop on them for sensational headlines. <\/p>\n Harry, Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are among a group of seven who allege that Associated Newspapers Ltd. hired private investigators to bug their cars, view their private records and eavesdrop on phone calls. <\/p>\n The publisher has denied the allegations and called them preposterous. <\/p>\n The trial in London\u2019s High Court is expected to last nine weeks and will see the return of Harry to the witness box for the second time since he made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior member of the royal family to testify in more than a century.<\/p>\n The case was one of many that has emerged from the widespread phone hacking scandal in which some journalists began intercepting voicemail messages around the turn of this century and continued for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Harry won a court judgment<\/a> in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for \u201cwidespread and habitual\u201d phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch\u2019s flagship U.K. tabloid made an unprecedented apology<\/a> for intruding on his life for years, and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Harry\u2019s self-proclaimed mission to reform the media is more personal and goes far beyond headlines that attempted to document his party boy youth and romance ups and downs.<\/p>\n He holds the press responsible for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris. He also blames them for persistent attacks on his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex<\/a>, that led them to leave royal life and move to the United States in 2020.<\/p>\n The trial comes as Harry tries to repair a damaged relationship with his family since he moved to America and burned the bridge behind him by penning a scorching 2023 memoir, \u201cSpare,\u201d and airing other family grievances in a Netflix series<\/a>. <\/p>\nThe prince vs. the publishers<\/h2>\n
Repairing rift in the royal family<\/h2>\n