OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
3:00 PM – Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Prince Harry has been ordered to pay the publisher of Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, thousands in legal fees after attempting to have a section of the United Kingdom tabloid paper’s libel defense tossed out.
Advertisement
The order, which was issued on Monday, is going to cost Prince Harry $62,800 and must be paid by December 29th.
The Duke of Sussex was in the process of suing the newspaper’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, because of an article that was posted regarding his battle for better security establishments due to his move to Los Angeles, California, with his wife, Meghan Markle.
The article said that he attempted to hide his efforts to preserve publicly funded safety in the U.K. after leaving his position as a working member of the British Royal Family.
Justice Matthew Nicklin ordered in London’s High Court that the publisher has a “real prospect” of depicting that messages declared on Prince Harry’s behalf were “misleading.” In addition, Nicklin highlighted that the article, which was published in February 2022, was remarked as an “honest opinion” and was not defamatory.
“The defendant may well submit that this was a masterclass in the art of ‘spinning,’” Nicklin said.
Prince Harry stated that the article was “fundamentally inaccurate,” claiming that the newspaper “defamed him” when it proposed that he lied in his original public message describing efforts to challenge the government’s determination to deprive him of his security detail.
In 2020, the prince and his wife relocated to California after resigning as senior royals. They claimed at the time that as the former American actress tried to adjust to life as a royal, palace staff were indifferent to her mental health issues. The couple also stated that the duchess was the “target of racist remarks” in the British press, which influenced their decision to leave the U.K.
Following his family’s relocation to the United States, Prince Harry lost his security detail.
He also has claimed that the antagonism toward him and his wife on social media, as well as the relentless hostility by the media, has “threatened their safety.”
Therefore, Prince Harry claimed that he would like his children to “feel at home” when overseas, which is not possible “if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil.” He additionally highlighted that he “felt forced” to leave the Royal Family.
“It was with great sadness to both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020,” Harry said in a statement. “The U.K. is my home. The U.K. is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the United States. That cannot happen if there is no possibility to keep them safe when they are on U.K. soil.”
“I can’t put my wife in danger like that, and given my experiences in life, I’m reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too,” Prince Harry added.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts