Prince Harry ends four-year legal battle against publisher of the Mirror by accepting ‘substantial sum’ in phone hacking case

Prince Harry has ended his four-year legal battle against the publisher of the Mirror by accepting a ‘substantial’ sum of money.

The High Court was told Mirror Group Newspapers had also agreed to pay all of the Duke of Sussex‘s costs in last year’s hacking trial.

Last year, the duke became the first royal in over a hundred years to step into the witness box at the High Court. 

He was the most high-profile of four claimants accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of hacking them for news stories.

After the seven-week trial last summer, Harry was awarded £140,600 by the judge. In his landmark ruling in December, Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that 15 out of 33 articles about Harry had come from hacking. 

The Duke of Sussex arrives at the High Court in London on June 7 last year to give evidence

But he also threw out the remaining 17 articles in the duke’s claims, branding one of them ‘hopeless’. And those 33 were only a ‘sample’ from a total of 148 articles Harry had complained about.

A second trial had been mooted to consider the remaining 115 articles that he claimed were from hacking. But today it was announced there had been an out-of-court settlement. 

Harry’s barrister David Sherborne told Mr Justice Fancourt: ‘MGN has accepted the duke’s offer. 

MGN will pay a substantial additional sum by way of damages, and secondly all of the costs of his claim’. The ‘additional sum’ was not specified, but will be added to the £140,600. 

The legal costs, which the newspaper group will have to pay towards Harry’s lawyers, are likely to be substantially higher.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, pictured outside Canada House in London in January 2020

The court heard that, in relation to Harry’s three fellow claimants, the newspaper should pay them £2.1million towards their costs. Harry’s costs were not revealed in court.

Harry’s case at trial was heard alongside similar claims brought by actor Michael Turner, who is known professionally as Michael Le Vell and is most famous for playing Kevin Webster in Coronation Street, actress Nikki Sanderson, and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.

The claims brought by Ms Sanderson and Ms Wightman were dismissed because they were made too late, despite the judge finding that some of their complaints were proved.

An MGN spokesperson said: ‘We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which gives our business further clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago and for which we have apologised.’