Prince Harry lost.
Not just the lawsuit, though that part happened on July 7 and feels pretty final. He lost the financial battle too, four years after filing a privacy suit against Associated Newspapers Limited that was supposed to expose how the Daily Mail and Mail onSunday invaded lives. It’s over now. And the bill? Staggering.
We are talking roughly $20 million.
Who pays for that kind of mess-up? Well, the sources say the people who funded the research will probably step up. Max Mosley’s estate, back when he was alive, bankrolled some of it. So did Hacked Off, that campaign group accused of trying to strangle press freedom. They might cover it. Or maybe not.
Elton John could pay it.
That’s what a legal source whispered. “He could well help Harry out.” Makes sense, right? Elton wasn’t just a friend; he was one of the claimants, right there beside Harry and David Furnish, along with Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie frost. He watched this thing burn for years. And he’s rich. Extremely rich.
Harry definitely doesn’t have that money. A well-placed insider was blunt about it. Meghan Markle, reportedly, is furious. She never wanted him to pursue the case.
“Meghan… did not want him to.”
The lawsuit claimed the tabloid group hired spies. They allegedly hacked phones, tapped cars, stole medical and financial records between 1993. and 201. It started back in October 202. The evidence felt solid, or at least it felt that way when previous judges looked at similar hacks against News Group and Mirror Group.
Now, all that is gone. Dismissed.
Harry and Doreen Lawrence tried to make some noise afterward. A joint statement, Tuesday morning. “We came to Court seeking justice,” they said. They got none of that. Just a judgment they call a reversal of sense. They say the judge ignored generic findings about the same private investigators doing the exact same bad things at the same time for similar stories.
It is hard to reconcile. Hard to understand why the evidence just evaporated because a different person presided over the room.
So the papers get their win. Harry gets his debt. The rest of us watch.
