Prince Harry, Elton John sue Daily Mail publisher

The Duke of Sussex is amongst a group of British celebrities suing the publisher for bugging their private telephone calls and paying police officials for sensitive information.

The Duke of Sussex is amongst a group of British celebrities suing the publisher for bugging their private telephone calls and paying police officials for sensitive information.

Prince Harry has launched yet another lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of British tabloids the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, over alleged phone tapping and other privacy breaches. 

Also suing are musician Elton John, his husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost and Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence who was murdered in an attack in 1993. 

The six had “become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy” by ANL, said a statement released by law firm Hamlins acting for Prince Harry.

The firm said the breaches included commissioning the bugging of live, private telephone calls, hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes, payment of police officials for sensitive information, and impersonating individuals to obtain medical records.

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“They have now therefore banded together to uncover the truth, and to hold the journalists responsible fully accountable, many of whom still hold senior positions of authority and power today,” Hamlins said in its statement.

Hamlins said it was representing Harry, younger son of King Charles, and Frost, while Lawrence, Hurley, John and Furnish are being represented by the law firm Gunnercooke.

ANL said it “utterly and unambiguously” denied the allegations.

“We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears, which appear to be nothing more than a preplanned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone-hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old,” a spokesman for the publisher told Variety.

“These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims – based on no credible evidence – appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere.”

The lawsuit will be the third Prince Harry has brought against ANL in as many years. He is currently suing the Mail on Sunday for defamation over an article which stated he had tried to hide details of his legal fight to reinstate police protection. He won the first stage of the case in July.

Last year, he won damages from the same paper over claims he had turned his back on the Royal Marines. 

His wife, Meghan Markle, also won a privacy case against ANL late last yearfor printing a letter she had written to her estranged father.