Prince Harry in Court for 'Privacy' Lawsuit

Prince Harry arrived unexpectedly in London where he is suing U.K. tabloid the Daily Mail over alleged bugging, getting personal information through deception and breaching his privacy.

The Duke of Sussex was greeted at the High Court by a pack of press photographers and video cameras, two months after his book Spare said the sound of cameras triggers his trauma.

Harry is among several high-profile figures, including Liz Hurley, Elton John and Sadie Frost, to accuse Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and its sister titles, of historic privacy breaches.

As he walked past journalists, Harry said "morning guys, morning," before he and a photographer accidentally bumped into each other.

A reporter could be heard shouting: "Sir, why are you here sir? What are you hoping to achieve sir?" Harry swerved both the question and the photographer.

Prince Harry and the other claimants are fighting to keep the case alive after an application by Associated to have the case thrown out for being out of time.

Newsweek understands Prince Harry made the journey to Britain alone while Meghan Markle stayed behind in California with their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Katie Spencer, Sky News arts and entertainment correspondent, was there and asked questions of the duke as he made his way in.

She wrote: "Absolutely nobody was expecting this because really there is no need for Prince Harry to be appearing in court this week.

"This is a very initial hearing, we're expecting the Daily Mail basically to this week attempt to get this hearing thrown out of court.

"I tried to put a question to him about why he was here today and he ignored me pretty much and just said good morning.

"But he's gone inside, he clearly does want to make it known that this is very important to him. He didn't actually need to go through the main entrance here."

Lawyers for Harry and the group of public figures said in a court filing, seen by Newsweek: "The Claimants each claim that in different ways they were the victim of numerous unlawful acts carried out by the Defendant or by those acting on the instructions of its newspapers, The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday."

These were described as including "illegally intercepting voicemail messages, listening into live landline calls, obtaining private information (such as itemized phone bills or medical records) by deception or 'blagging', using private investigators to commit these unlawful information gathering ("UIG") acts on their behalf, and even commissioning the breaking and entry into private property."

The Daily Mail responded to the case when it was first made public in October: "We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears which appear to be nothing more than a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old.

"These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims—based on no credible evidence—appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere."

Update 3/27/23, 6:39 a.m. EDT: This article was updated with more information.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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