Prince Harry's Team Accused of Cynical Tactics in Tabloid Lawsuit

Prince Harry's high-stakes lawsuit against his most-hated U.K. tabloid heard allegations his team attempted to use "illegitimately obtained information to support their speculative claims."

The Duke of Sussex—together with other U.K. public figures—is seeking to tie the Daily Mail to historic phone-hacking allegations of the kind that in 2011 forced the closure of Sunday newspaper the News of the World.

Harry and Meghan Markle between them have sued its publisher, Associated Newspapers, four times—making it the news organization the couple have clashed with the most.

Lawyers for Associated look like they will fight tooth and nail to keep key evidence out of the case, even after Harry's team argued its inclusion was inevitable.

The dispute revolves around ledgers detailing payments to private investigators that the Mail disclosed to a U.K. public inquiry into the conduct of the press, known as the Leveson Inquiry.

Associated argue reporting restrictions were imposed by the inquiry and remain in place, meaning Harry's team should never have built their case around it.

They say it is so fundamental to the lawsuit that "much (if not all)" of the case against them will be "unsustainable" if the documents are not included in evidence.

Associated's court filing, seen by Newsweek, read: "The ledgers were provided to the claimants in breach of those clear obligations [as part of the Leveson Inquiry] and it is the claimants who have acted tactically and cynically in seeking to use such illegitimately obtained information to support their speculative claims."

It comes after Harry's team celebrated a partial victory at the High Court, in London, on November 10 after they blocked the Mail's attempt to get the case thrown out.

However, there was a catch in that the judge ruled the Leveson ledgers could not be included in the case in their current form.

Harry's team were bullish in a public statement after the ruling: "This only delays the inevitable since they will have to be produced in the course of the claim by Associated in any event.

"However, if The Mail and The Mail on Sunday have nothing to hide, and they genuinely believe our allegations are unfounded, as they appear to claim, they should provide us with the ledgers voluntarily now, and let the claims proceed to trial as quickly as possible."

Associated's court filing confirmed the newspaper will oppose any attempt by Harry's team to get the ledgers included.

The whole case is a throwback to an era in the history of the British media that many argue is largely over and the claimants will have to cast their minds back, in some cases decades, to recall the incidents about which they have complained.

The phone-hacking scandal rocked the British media and dominated public debate in the U.K. for years, culminating in the closure of Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid News of the World in 2011 and a number of criminal trials in the years that followed.

It also led to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics and standards that resulted in the U.K.'s heavily criticized watchdog, the Press Complaints Commissions folding and being replaced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which many in the British newspaper industry argued was simply replacing like for like.

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

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