JUST a few months after Prince Harry attended his grandmother’s funeral, the Duke of Sussex is now back in the United Kingdom on an unannounced visit.
This time, to attend a high court hearing in a case he has filed against a British tabloid.
On Monday, Prince Harry attended a 4-day preliminary hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.
Also in the same court on the same day was British Star Elton John for a similar high-profile case against the Daily Mail.
The two are part of a group that alleges the newspaper publisher Associated Newspaper Limited (ANL) who owns the Daily Mail, mail online and mail on Sunday – used unlawful information-gathering tactics such as planting listening devices in homes and cars and recording private calls.
Prince Harry and the other claimants say they have (and I quote) “compelling and highly distressing evidence” (end of quote) to show that they fell victim to (quote unquote) “abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy”.
In a separate case, the Duke of Sussex is also suing ANL over a 2022 article about his security arrangements.
To recall, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan lost their publicly funded UK police protection when they stepped down as senior working royals and moved to the United States in 2020.
Harry offered to pay for the cost of police protection but the offer was dismissed.
It can also be noted that Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle sued after the Daily Mail published parts of a private letter she wrote to her estranged father in 2018.
Meghan initially won the case without a full trial but ANL made an appeal against the high court’s decision which later resulted to the duchess losing the court battle.
The last time Prince Harry was in the United Kingdom was for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in September last year.
And with King Charles III’s coronation in May, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are yet to confirm whether they will attend the ceremony.
