Prince Harry, Elton John Lose $50 Million in Fees After Daily Mail Lawsuit

Prince Harry, Elton John and more stars are dealing with the aftermath of a lost legal battle. 

On July 7, British Justice Matthew Nicklin ruled against a group of high profile figures—that also included Elizabeth Hurley—in a lawsuit accusing the Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, of unlawful information gathering.  

“Associated Newspapers welcomes today’s judgement, which is an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists, and for a free press generally,” a spokesperson for Associated Newspapers said in a July 7 statement to E! News. “This is a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism.”

In the lawsuit, filed in 2022, the plaintiffs accused the newspaper organization of mobile phone hacking, landline bugging and even home bugging in 97 separate allegations. Following the ruling, Associated Newspapers applauded Judge Nicklin for how his ruling “accepted the honesty of our journalists’ evidence on how they sourced their stories.”

The publisher went on to reiterate, as they did in response to the initial filing, that the since-dismissed allegations were “lurid” and “preposterous,” adding the claims “were a fishing expedition by the claimants and their legal teams in a politically motivated campaign to muzzle the free press.”