Prince Harry loses bid to throw out Mail’s defence to libel claim

Prince Harry has lost his bid to throw out the Mail on Sunday’s defence to his libel claim over his UK security arrangements.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over a February 2022 article about his legal challenge against the government’s decision to strip him of his security detail when he moved to the US.

A High Court judge has ruled that the Mail can go ahead with an honest opinion defence in a trial, which will include their claim that Prince Harry made misleading statements about offering to pay for his own security.

Prince Harry’s lawyers have said the story was “an attack on his honesty and integrity”, as it claimed Harry “tried to keep details of his legal battle to reinstate his police protection secret from the public”.

In June 2022, parts of the article were found to have been defamatory by a High Court judge, who concluded that they gave the reader the impression Prince Harry was intentionally attempting to mislead the public. ANL is contesting the claim, arguing the article expressed an “honest opinion” and did not cause “serious harm” to his reputation.

They added that Harry had made a false claim over his willingness to pay for police protection in the UK. At a hearing in March, the High Court heard the duke’s bid to strike out ANL’s “honest opinion” defence or grant judgment in his favour on it.

But In a written ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Nicklin gave this defence a greenlight to go to trial. Justin Rushbrooke KC, for Harry, said in written submissions for the March hearing that ANL’s defence to the libel claim “rests upon two provably false premises” relating to a press statement.

The statement, released when Harry first made his legal challenge in January 2022, read: “The duke first offered to pay personally for UK police protection for himself and his family in January of 2020 at Sandringham.