Prince of Principles facing trouble after day in the sun

As Prince Harry leaves the High Court with a public apology and substantial damages from Rupert Murdoch's tabloid, Tessa Dunlop considers the price he's still having to pay...

- Tessa Dunlop

There was a feeling of euphoria when Prince Harry stepped out of the High Court into the summer sunshine in June 2023. The first royal to give evidence for over 100 years, he returned to Britain to hold our tabloid culture to account. The self-styled truth-seeking messiah received a warm roar of approval from fans lining the street, he waved majestically and swept away in a chauffeur-driven car. The Prince of Principle was not for turning, this was Harry the hero – virtually the only man on the planet rich enough and famous enough to resist the compromising cash of an out-of-court-settlement with some of Britain’s notorious tabloids.

Needless to say, 2025 began with mounting anticipation for round two; having slayed the Mirror Group and won what his barrister, David Sherborne, described as “a vindicating and affirming” victory, up next was Murdoch’s notorious media empire News Group Newspapers (NGN), more specifically The Sun – a target the Duke’s had in his sights for five long years.

But at the eleventh hour, an out-of-court settlement was announced. On a damp January morning, NGN offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to the prince for “phone-hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators”.

The statement was fulsome proof of what Harry has consistently claimed – that The Sun newspaper ruthlessly and illegally harvested his young life for profit and likewise the private life of his vulnerable mother, Diana Princess of Wales. In the words of David Sherborne, this is a “monumental victory” and a “vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling”.