Prince Harry Wins Defamation Lawsuit Against the Same British Tabloid Meghan Markle Just Sued
Prince Harry just won a lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday, the same British publication that his wife, Duchess Meghan Markle, recently sued. Here are the details of both of the royal couple’s legal battles.
Prince Harry won a lawsuit against the same publication his wife recently sued
Meghan Markle was victorious in her legal battle against The Mail on Sunday, and now her husband, Prince Harry, has won a lawsuit against the same publication.
Prince Harry sued Associated Newspapers Limited (which owns The Mail on Sunday) over an article the tabloid published about the royal’s separate lawsuit against the British government over security issues.
According to The Daily Beast, legal counsel for Prince Harry claimed that The Mail on Sunday’s story insinuated that the royal lied and attempted to influence public opinion about his ongoing case. Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) responded by saying their story wasn’t defamatory.
The court has sided with Prince Harry, but his legal battle might not be over yet. Media law in England makes the ruling just the first step in a libel claim. ANL now has the opportunity to file a defense if the publication wants to continue fighting the case.
Like Prince Harry, Meghan Markle won her lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday in January
Prince Harry’s victory over Associated Newspapers Limited comes right on the heels of his wife, Meghan Markle, winning her lawsuit against the same publication.
Markle sued The Mail on Sunday over five articles published in 2019. According to The Guardian, the Duchess of Sussex wasn’t seeing financial gain – she requested just a nominal £1 in damages for invasion of privacy after the tabloid published a private letter she had sent to her father. ANL also had to run a 64-word story admitting they had lost the case in print and online.
In a separate case, The Mail on Sunday will also be required to pay an undisclosed sum for copyright infringement because they published large portions of Markle’s letter. The tabloid will also have to cover a substantial part of Meghan’s legal costs, which could be upwards of £1 million.
Meghan Markle correctly stated that winning her legal battle was ‘precedent-setting’
The Duchess of Sussex claimed that winning her lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited set a precedent for future court cases regarding privacy in the tabloid industry. Meghan Markle was proven correct just months after she won her legal battle in December 2021 when Prince Harry was victorious in his lawsuit against the same publication.
Markle has maintained that her combat with ANL had more to do with principles than money. “This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right,” the Duchess of Sussex claimed in a statement after the ruling. “While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create.”
