Prince Harry’s Court Cases and Legal Battles: An Exhaustive Guide

This week, Prince Harry traveled to the UK without his wife, Meghan Markle, or their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to launch another front in his long-running war against the British press. He made an appearance in a London courtroom for his privacy-invasion trial against Associated Newspapers, one of Britain’s largest newspaper companies, and on Wednesday, he took to the witness stand to discuss the case.

The royal family spent most of the 20th century largely avoiding public litigation. Harry, though, has spent years aggressively challenging both the press and the government of his native country, ever since he stopped getting legal advice from Queen Elizabeth II’s lawyers and instead hired his own legal representation.

Harry’s quest began in 2019, shortly after his wife launched her own battle against Associated Newspapers and The Mail on Sunday, alleging that the publisher breached her privacy and copyright. (Meghan would eventually emerge victorious in that lawsuit.) At the tail end of a trip to South Africa, Harry announced that he was suing News Group Newspapers and the Mirror Group, and the following spring, he added that he and Meghan would no longer be cooperating with reporters from many tabloids. His announcement shocked the global media—and would play a pivotal role in the dissolution of Harry’s relationship with his family, which would culminate in Meghan and Harry’s 2020 decision to step back from senior royal duties and move to North America. In June 2023, Harry became the first senior royal to testify in High Court since 1891, when his great-great-great-grandfather Edward VII testified for 20 minutes during a trial.

After more than six years of courtroom struggles, Harry may be getting ready to bury the hatchet. “It’s not a nice experience for anyone to find themselves in court,” a source close to the prince told the Times earlier this month. “But he sees it as a necessary thing to do for a lot of reasons, a continuation of an ongoing mission, and he’s feeling confident going into it. He just wants to get through it and move on.” In the meantime, though, he’s currently involved in two major cases—with four more in the rearview mirror. Here’s a guide to each one.

Harry vs. Mirror Group Newspapers

At issue: Alleged illegal information gathering and phone hacking at The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and Sunday People.

Outcome: Harry won on 15 of the 33 claims he had made and was awarded a modest penalty payment of 140,600 British pounds.

Harry signed on to this case in 2019, joining with other British celebrities like former soccer player Ian Wright and the estate of George Michael. Harry’s lawyers alleged that unlawfully gathered information was used in dozens of articles about the prince that had been published between 1996 and 2010. The prince appeared in court for the suit in June 2023 and ultimately testified for two days, describing how the disclosure of private information affected his mental health and his relationship with his then girlfriend, Chelsy Davy. On the stand, Harry said that he joined the lawsuit in order to push back against the assumption that his personal life is open to media scrutiny by default. “There’s a difference between public interest and what interests the public,” he said.

Harry (and Meghan) vs. Paparazzi Agency X17

At issue: Photographs of Archie taken at the home the family borrowed from Tyler Perry.

Outcome: An agreement to destroy any copies of the photos and pay a portion of the couple’s legal fees, as well as an apology.

After photos of Archie in the backyard of Perry’s home appeared in a German magazine, Meghan and Harry’s lawyer filed an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit in 2020 and subpoenaed three paparazzi agencies to learn who was responsible for taking the pictures. X17 eventually admitted that it had shopped around the photos, and the couple’s lawyer told The New York Times that the agency had agreed to pay a portion of their legal fees. “We apologize to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their son for the distress we have caused,” the agency said in a statement, per the Times. “We were wrong to offer these photographs and commit to not doing so again.”

Harry vs. the Heritage Foundation

At issue: The conservative group, seeking a copy of Harry’s immigration records, sued the Department of Homeland Security, claiming it violated FOIA.

Outcome: The suit was dismissed, and though Heritage said it would continue to press the matter, further documents have not been released since March 2025.

Though he wasn’t a party to the proceedings, Harry’s name was mentioned in the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security. The conservative nonprofit behind Project 2025 sought Harry’s immigration records under a Freedom of Information Act request, and cited Harry’s comments about drug use in his best-selling 2023 memoir, Spare, to argue that his immigration status should be reconsidered. The FOIA request was largely denied, and the Heritage Foundation sued DHS, claiming it had violated FOIA. Ultimately, the case was dismissed, citing Harry’s right to privacy. DHS later released redacted testimony from a FOIA officer at the department attesting that Harry went through the normal vetting process to live in the United States.

Harry vs. News Group Newspapers

At issue: Articles in News of the World and The Sun, including some in which Harry was accused of drug use, which allegedly included unlawfully gathered information.

Outcome: A settlement reported to be in the tens of millions and an apology from News Group.

Harry announced that he was signing on to this case against the British print arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2019. He joined a plaintiff group of more than 40 celebrities, including Hugh Grant; by the end of 2024, he was one of only two remaining complainants after the rest of the suits were settled. This lawsuit dealt with aspects of the phone-hacking scandal that were familiar to the British public, having been the subject of a major legislative report in 2012. Despite some public admissions about phone hacking and the shuttering of News of the World in 2011, there were still open questions about what the executives at the company knew, and when they knew it. In legal filings, according to reports, Harry alleged that his brother, Prince William, had also settled with NGN in 2020 for a “very large sum.”

Harry vs. Associated Newspapers

At issue: Whether The Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday used illegal information gathering to report on Harry during a period ending in 2011.