Prince Harry‘s legal showdown with Rupert Murdoch‘s tabloid empire just hit the wall! Recently, London’s High Court threw some serious shade on the Duke of Sussex’s hopes to bring new allegations to his lawsuit against the British tabloids. The royal renegade planned to include his wife, Meghan Markle, and some blasts from the past concerning his late mum, Princess Diana. But boom! The court said: nope.
Here’s the royal tea: Prince Harry and his group of over 40 plaintiffs are blaming Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) for allegedly spying on people and hacking phones. These shady acts by journalists and snoopy private investigators date back from the ’90s until around 2015 and come from big-name papers like The Sun and the now-extinct News of the World.
This legal drama, scheduled to last eight weeks in court starting in January, had the Duke of Sussex attempting a plot twist by adding more allegations from 2016 about The Sun trying to spy on Meghan Markle back when she was just his girlfriend. In addition, he was all set to include Princess Diana in the case, adding allegations from the ’90s.
Fast forward to now, Judge Timothy Fancourt is having none of it and said that Prince Harry was using “knowingly false” evidence about phone hacking and other illegal acts. Likewise, he denied the prince the possibility of stretching the timeline of his lawsuit to include anything related to Meghan Markle and his mom, Princess Diana.
In his ruling, the judge hinted that the 40 plaintiffs might be trying to get a “good storyline to publish,” which wouldn’t help this case. Along the same lines, NGN’s spokesperson strutted out claiming a total win, saying the court supported the press. And just like that, Prince Harry definitely didn’t get what he wanted, but let’s hope he isn’t throwing the towel just yet.
