Prince Harry loses case against the Daily Mail | BBC News — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Harry,
2. 0:01>> it's the best result I think the Daily
3. 0:03Mail could have imagined. It's a
4. 0:05complete and catastrophic uh defeat for
5. 0:09Prince Harry and the other claimments.
6. 0:11>> It's a huge huge loss on both sides.
7. 0:13There were no winners from a financial
8. 0:14basis.
9. 0:15>> The court isn't deciding whether people
10. 0:17feel agrieved. Clearly, they do. Uh it's
11. 0:20deciding whether there's evidence, not
12. 0:23merely suspicion. But he certainly
13. 0:26doesn't subscribe to the traditional
14. 0:28royal mantra of never complain, never
15. 0:30explain.
16. 0:32>> So, Prince Harry has lost his latest
17. 0:34legal case against the media, taking on
18. 0:37the publishers of the Daily Mail and
19. 0:39Mail on Sunday. We will look at the
20. 0:41background behind the verdict, what it
21. 0:43means for Prince Harry, and the ongoing
22. 0:46tensions between the Sussex's and the
23. 0:48royal family. First, what actually
24. 0:51happened today? Well, our correspondent
25. 0:53Helena Wilkinson is outside the court
26. 0:54for us. And Helena, tell us about the
27. 0:57verdict.
28. 1:01>> Yes. So, a trial took place here,
29. 1:03Matthew, at the high court earlier this
30. 1:05year. The claimants in the case, seven
31. 1:08claimants, high-profile claimments,
32. 1:10including Prince Harry, Sir Elton John,
33. 1:13his husband David Furnish, and Elizabeth
34. 1:17Hurley among the claimants. and they
35. 1:19took Associated Newspapers Limited, the
36. 1:22publishers of the Daily Mail and the
37. 1:24Mail on Sunday to court. They were suing
38. 1:26them for a breach of privacy. Uh the
39. 1:30judgment today handed down by the judge,
40. 1:32Mr. Justice Nicholan. Uh and he
41. 1:34dismissed their cases and all seven uh
42. 1:38complainants lost their high court case
43. 1:41against uh the publisher of the Daily
44. 1:44Mail. So they failed to prove the
45. 1:46allegations and all seven of them lost
46. 1:49the case.
47. 1:51>> Well, this is a case that stems back
48. 1:53more than 20 years. Articles like these
49. 1:56targeting some of his former girlfriends
50. 1:58were at the core of Prince Harry's
51. 2:00claims that reporters working for the
52. 2:03Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday used
53. 2:04unlawful methods for getting information
54. 2:07for those stories. And it wasn't just
55. 2:09Harry. As Helena was saying, his fellow
56. 2:12plaintiffs included a number of
57. 2:13well-known figures including Sir Elton
58. 2:15John, Sir Simon Hughes, Liz Hurley,
59. 2:17Sadie Frost, and Baroness Dorene
60. 2:20Lawrence. They claimed the paper used
61. 2:22phone tapping, intercepted voicemails,
62. 2:25and obtained personal information
63. 2:27through deception, something the paper
64. 2:29has always, always denied. Well, as we
65. 2:32heard, the judge didn't think the
66. 2:34plaintiffs had enough evidence to prove
67. 2:36those claims. Well, Helena, tell us more
68. 2:39then about the details. It was a monthsl
69. 2:41long trial, wasn't it, with emotional
70. 2:44testimony.
71. 2:48Yes, it was. And Prince Harry himself
72. 2:50flew in from the US to give evidence
73. 2:52over a couple of hours uh during the
74. 2:54case. He became emotional towards the
75. 2:57end of his evidence. He put forward as
76. 2:59part of his claim 14 newspaper articles
77. 3:03which he alleged uh the information
78. 3:05within them he said was gathered by
79. 3:08unlawful methods and it was then that
80. 3:11private information he said that ended
81. 3:13up in newspapers. Uh the other claimants
82. 3:16uh many of them also gave evidence as
83. 3:18well during the case. A very expensive
84. 3:21long-running case that actually goes
85. 3:23back four years. That's when the case uh
86. 3:26first came to the four. Uh in his
87. 3:29ruling, Mr. Justice Nicklin today said
88. 3:31that the allegations were serious and
89. 3:34required more convincing evidence before
90. 3:37being proven, but the claimants had
91. 3:39failed to do that. And he also said that
92. 3:42uh in particular to do with one of
93. 3:45Prince Harry's claims that there might
94. 3:46have been suspicions. He might have been
95. 3:48suspicious about how that information
96. 3:51got into a newspaper, but that simply
97. 3:53wasn't enough to prove the case.
98. 3:55>> And Hannah, he lost today, but this
99. 3:58isn't the first legal action Prince
100. 4:00Harry has brought against the media. So,
101. 4:02remind us about how those other cases
102. 4:04have gone.
103. 4:07>> Yes. Two other big court battles he has
104. 4:09had before. In 2023,
105. 4:12Prince Harry won 13 15 claims in the
106. 4:15case against Mirror Greek newspapers of
107. 4:18unlawfully gathering information for
108. 4:21stories published about him. And he also
109. 4:24settled out of court uh just hours
110. 4:27before the trial was due to take place
111. 4:29with the publisher of the Sun newspaper.
112. 4:31and they paid a substantial uh damages
113. 4:35and apologized to the Duke of Sussex as
114. 4:37well in a longunning legal battle over
115. 4:40claims of unlawful intrusion into his
116. 4:43life. Important uh to just go back to
117. 4:46the case today that Associated
118. 4:48Newspapers Limited have put out a
119. 4:50statement in response. They have said
120. 4:53that the judgment today it is a
121. 4:56magnificent vindication of the Daily
122. 4:58Mail's journalism and they go on to say
123. 5:00as the judgment clearly shows every
124. 5:03single article was legitimately sourced.
125. 5:06>> So Helena is this the last of these
126. 5:09cases brought by the Duke of Sussex.
127. 5:13>> It's a good question. We are not aware
128. 5:15of any further cases where Prince Harry
129. 5:18is intending to take on any other
130. 5:21newspaper group. As I mentioned, he has
131. 5:23had success uh previously with some
132. 5:26newspaper groups. Today, no success. He
133. 5:28has failed. He's lost his case. Uh so,
134. 5:31we're not aware of any. So, this
135. 5:33potentially could be the last time uh we
136. 5:35see him take on such a court case.
137. 5:38>> Back to you in a moment, but Prince
138. 5:39Harry happens to be in London today,
139. 5:41starting a week of engagements at a
140. 5:43number of his UK charities. Well, his
141. 5:46first engagement came at exactly the
142. 5:48same time as that verdict was being read
143. 5:50out, an event for the Invictus Games,
144. 5:52his charity for military injured
145. 5:54veterans. How do we remove barriers? How
146. 5:58do we create systems that don't just
147. 6:00respond to injury, but enable people to
148. 6:02thrive afterwards?
149. 6:04How do we ensure that recovery isn't
150. 6:06defined by a program with an end date,
151. 6:09but by a lifetime of opportunity? But
152. 6:13whilst he's here in the UK, there's been
153. 6:15some confusion about where he's actually
154. 6:17staying. Early on Monday morning, the
155. 6:19Duke of Sussex official spokesperson
156. 6:22said Harry would be staying at
157. 6:24Buckingham Palace. Minutes later, the
158. 6:26palace said that wasn't true. An offer
159. 6:29that was on the table for Harry to stay
160. 6:31had expired on Friday. The palace said
161. 6:34they needed more time for a guest to
162. 6:37actually stay. So, let's go back to
163. 6:39Helena. What is actually going on here
164. 6:41and where is Harry now staying?
165. 6:45>> Well, he arrived in the UK yesterday. It
166. 6:48was a bit of a messy, complicated back
167. 6:50and forth between his team and the
168. 6:52palace as well in terms of where he was
169. 6:55going to be staying. As you mentioned,
170. 6:57uh the initial plan was he said he
171. 6:59agreed or his team said they agreed that
172. 7:01he would stay uh at the royal residence.
173. 7:04very quickly. Uh the palace said that
174. 7:06was not possible because he hadn't met
175. 7:08the deadline. Uh we know he's staying on
176. 7:11private premises, not at Buckingham
177. 7:13Palace. Uh contrary to what his team had
178. 7:16initially said. Uh we know when Prince
179. 7:19Harry has come to the UK on previous
180. 7:21trips. Uh he has uh checked into hotels
181. 7:24and also stayed with friends.
182. 7:26>> And what about Megan and the children?
183. 7:29They aren't here, are they?
184. 7:33They're not at the moment. The initial
185. 7:35plan was for uh all of them to come to
186. 7:38the UK at the start. So to join uh
187. 7:41Prince Harry yesterday when he arrived.
188. 7:43They are not in the UK at the moment.
189. 7:45That decision came after uh Prince Harry
190. 7:48was told that uh he would not receive
191. 7:51publicly funded police protection while
192. 7:54he was in the UK. Prince Harry has
193. 7:56always said he wants to bring his wife,
194. 7:59the Duchess of Sussex, and their two
195. 8:00children to the UK. Uh so he's not here,
196. 8:04they're not here rather in London. Uh
197. 8:06there is a question as to whether they
198. 8:08might join Prince Harry when he travels
199. 8:10up to the Midlands later this week, but
200. 8:12that's yet to be confirmed.
201. 8:14>> Helena, a final thought. Where does this
202. 8:17leave the relationship between the
203. 8:19Sussex's and the Palace now?
204. 8:24Well, I think Matthew, if you look at
205. 8:25that very messy back and forth uh even
206. 8:29before Prince Harry arrived in the UK,
207. 8:32uh you get the sense that on both sides
208. 8:35there is an element of distrust between
209. 8:37the two sides and also it appears a bit
210. 8:41of a lack of communication with them. Uh
211. 8:44we don't know yet if Prince Harry will
212. 8:46meet his father, the king, during the
213. 8:48trip. It had been um expected that he
214. 8:51might do, but that has yet to be
215. 8:53confirmed. If that does take place, it
216. 8:55may be that that is a private meeting,
217. 8:58but it still seems based on what we've
218. 9:00seen just over the last couple of days,
219. 9:03uh that relationship relationships
220. 9:06between them, uh the two sides remain
221. 9:09strained.
222. 9:10>> Helena Wilkerson, thanks for taking us
223. 9:12through all of that. And that is all you
224. 9:14need to know about Prince Harry's legal
225. 9:16loss and the state of the relationship
226. 9:18with the royal family.