It seems like Prince Harry will be spending more time in the courtroom than with his own family next year. The Duke of Sussex has multiple legal battles currently underway relating to alleged libel, alleged unlawful information-gathering, security, and privacy.
The Prince fought tooth and nail in the High Court this year to plead his case regarding the Home Office withdrawing his security in the U.K. That’s not the only legal fight Harry has on his hands. He’s also locked in a dispute with News Group Newspapers (NGN) over alleged illegal information-gathering and invasion of the Prince’s privacy.
Harry alleges that NGN unlawfully obtained information about him between 1996 and 2011, and this isn’t the only case against the group. There have been about 40 other cases brought against NGN. Only two of these litigants have yet to agree to a settlement, one being Harry, the other being Labour Party deputy leader, Tom Watson.
The Duke of Sussex has promised to never settle the claim, insisting that it’s about achieving “closure” for all the others who have been forced to settle. This has led to accusations that the prince is trying to turn his legal case into a public inquiry (a major investigation that would be led by a government minister).
It’s going to be a long court showdown
According to an article from the Express, the trial is expected to start on January 20 of next year and will go on for eight weeks, but Harry isn’t expected to take to the stand until closer to the end of February. Representing NGN, Anthony Hudson KC (King’s Counsel) told the judge that Harry’s case involved 30 articles and the prince would need to be questioned on every single one.
As you can imagine, that’s a lot of questions. Hudson estimated they would need four days to get through them all, “If we said anything less than up to four days, we would be at risk of running out of time.” Hopefully, the seat behind the stand is comfortable, because Harry is going to be there a while.
The duke seems ready for this fight — earlier this month he was questioned about the ongoing trial during an appearance at the New York Times DealBrook summit where he emphasized that accountability was his goal, “The goal is accountability. It’s really that simple. Unfortunately, the scale of the cover-up is so large that people need to see it for themselves.”
Harry previously won his case against Mirror Group News (MGN) for unlawfully gathering information, so he’s probably feeling pretty confident here. Earlier this year he claimed that his grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, fully supported his fight, and he believes she wanted him to see it through to the end.
His calendar for next year is already looking pretty booked as the prince will be returning to the High Court in April to make his appeal for him and his family to receive security detail in the U.K. He may as well pitch a tent there at this rate.