Prince Harry has landed in the UK today, March 27th, to show his support of a lawsuit against a newspaper publisher.
The Duke of Sussex arrived in England without his wife and children, heading straight for the U.K. High Court in London..
Harry, along with friends Elton John, Sadie Frost, and Elizbeth Hurley, who have come together in a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, Ltd., the parent company of The Daily Mail – a publication that Harry has long been at odds with. Subsidiaries also include The Mail Online and The Mail on Sunday.
According to the plaintiffs in the case, Associated Newspapers hired private investigators and had them use illegal means in their search for stories, thus violating their privacy. They allege that the methods employed ranged from tapping phone lines to bribing law enforcement, to placing listening devices in their homes and even going so far as to impersonate others to get their hands on medical records and documents, says CNN.
Associated Newspapers has vehemently denied the allegations, referring to the claims as “unsubstantiated and defamatory” and “preposterous smears.” The have also gone so far as to say that the Duke of Sussex’ claims were a “pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone-hacking scandal.”
In response, the Duke of Sussex’ lawyers wrote: “In this period, [Prince Harry] and his Associates were regularly targeted by the private investigator, Gavin Burrows, on behalf of [journalist’s name redacted] at The Mail on Sunday who carried out Unlawful Acts such as obtaining itemised phone bills, phone hacking [Prince Harry’s] friends’ phones, landline tapping [Prince Harry’s] friends’ home phones, placing a hardwire tap on [Prince Harry’s] friend, Guy Pelly’s phone, as well as intercepting his voicemails, and other unlawful information gathering about [Prince Harry’s] girlfriend at the time, Chelsy Davy, and other blags through which he obtained information unlawfully or illegally about [Prince Harry] and his Associates.”