Prince Harry, Elton John, and several other individuals have initiated legal proceedings against the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper for alleged phone-tapping and privacy breaches, according to a law firm representing some of them. Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and Mail Online, has strongly refuted the accusations. The group also includes actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, filmmaker David Furnish, and Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993.
The affected individuals were reportedly distressed upon discovering evidence of privacy violations, including the placement of listening devices in their homes and vehicles, bugging of private phone calls, payment for sensitive information from police officials, and impersonation to access medical records. The law firm representing Prince Harry and Frost is Hamlins, while Lawrence, Hurley, John, and Furnish are being represented by the law firm gunnercooke.
A spokesperson for the publisher dismissed the claims as baseless and part of a planned effort to implicate the Mail titles in a phone hacking scandal from decades ago. Prince Harry has previously taken legal action against Associated Newspapers, currently suing The Mail on Sunday for libel and having won damages last year over false allegations. His wife, Meghan, also won a privacy case against the publisher for publishing a private letter she had written.
The couple’s relationship with the British tabloid press deteriorated after their marriage in 2018, leading them to disengage with several major British newspapers due to what they perceived as intrusive and misleading coverage. Media intrusion played a significant role in their decision to step back from royal duties and relocate to the United States. Elton John defended the couple against accusations of hypocrisy, with a spokesperson for the couple refraining from further comment beyond the statement released by Hamlins.
Notably, other parties involved in the legal action have previously pursued legal recourse against prominent media entities. Frost was compensated in 2015 following a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers for phone hacking, while Hurley, John, and Furnish settled phone-hacking claims against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers before trial in 2019.