Prince Harry, celebrities ordered to pay $18m – but final court bill could be higher

Prince Harry has been ordered to pay a steep legal bill for his failed court case against a major publisher after a court ruled that he and his fellow claimants owed £9.54 million ($18.1 million) in legal costs.

The court ruling exposes Harry and others, including rock star Elton John and model Elizabeth Hurley, to even greater costs after a judge dismissed their long-running claim against the Daily Mail earlier this year.

They must pay the first sum by August 28 and face a difficult legal argument over the remainder of the costs, given the Mail’s publisher won the case and wants the prince and others to cover its costs.

Lawyers for the publisher, Associated Newspapers, told the court in July that its legal bill had reached £34.5 million ($65.6 million).

Harry and other claimants arranged an insurance policy to cover £16 ⁠million ($30 million), but are now exposed to a much steeper bill that could require them to pay from their own savings.

Judge Matthew Nicklin’s judgment on costs was published on Friday in London (early on Saturday AEST).

Nicklin was highly critical of the way the claimants’ case had been put, saying their allegations were based on “speculative and inferential” foundations and had not been withdrawn when they were no longer being pursued.

“In my judgment, the cumulative effect of these matters takes the case well outside the norm. The conduct was unreasonable to a high degree,” Nicklin said.

The High Court ruled in July that the Duke of Sussex and the other claimants had failed to prove their allegations that the Daily Mail had used unlawful means, including phone hacking, to get stories about them.

They also claimed it used “blagging” – a practice in which a journalist makes false claims to trick people into divulging information.

Associated Newspapers said at the time that the ruling was “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists and for a free press generally”.

The claimants who joined Harry in the case were Hurley, actor Sadie Frost, politician Simon Hughes and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a member of the House of Lords whose son was murdered in a racist attack. John joined the case with his husband, David Furnish.

All of them claimed Associated Newspapers had used illegal means to gain information about them.
The judge found that the claims by the prince and others relied on “inference” rather than hard evidence.

“But suspicion, even where understandable, was not enough,” he wrote.

Harry issued an angry statement after the July decision, with his fellow claimant Baroness Lawrence.

“It is a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected. However, the lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted,” they said.

“When the court says there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, despite the documents showing otherwise, then one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved.”

Lawyers for the newspaper called that statement as an abuse of the prince’s celebrity status.

The newspaper is controlled by Jonathan Vere Harmsworth, the hereditary peer Viscount Rothermere, whose great-grandfather founded the Daily Mail in 1896.

In a statement on Friday, the publisher hailed the initial decision on costs as another “overwhelming victory” for the Mail and its journalism.