Prince Harry ordered to pay nearly £50,000 to The Mail On Sunday owner over failed application
The Duke of Sussex must pay lawyers’ bills run up by the publisher of The Mail On Sunday, after losing the latest stage of a High Court libel battle, a judge says.
On Friday Prince Harry failed in a bid to have Associated Newspapers’ defence to his libel claim thrown out.
Mr Justice Nicklin says the duke must now pay the legal costs incurred by Associated in relation to that “summary judgment application”.
The judge said, in a written case order released to journalists on Monday, that those costs should be assessed if they were not agreed.
But he said the duke should pay Associated £48,447 “on account” before the end of the year.
The Prince is suing Associated Newspapers over a February 2022 article about his legal challenge against the Home Office following a decision to change his publicly-funded security arrangements when visiting the UK.
ANL is contesting the claim.
The story was published in February under the headline: “Exclusive: How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret… then – just minutes after the story broke – his PR machine tried to put a positive spin on the dispute”.
In July, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled in Harry’s favour on the first stage of his libel claim, relating to the “objective meaning” of the article, following a hearing in June.
On Friday, he lost his attempt to strike out part of the paper’s defence in a libel case, so it was announced that he was ordered to pay for that summary judgment application.
Press Association