Take a pot shot at Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and they’ve proved they’ll fight back. They’re not shy about speaking out when they’re unhappy about a situation and both have taken legal action against media for printing things they don’t like.
Now Harry has won his latest battle against a newspaper that accused him of turning his back on the Royal Marines. The former army captain sued Associated Newspapers, publishers of Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, for libel in the wake of two stories that claimed he had not been in touch with the Marines – one of the armed services he always supported as a member of the royal family – since stepping down from his senior role last year.
Harry’s lawyer Jenny Afia says he had, in fact, made “repeated and concerted efforts” to support the Marines even though he had been forced to step back from his military involvement after he and Meghan relinquished their status.
“The baseless, false and defamatory stories published… constituted not only a personal attack upon the duke’s character, but also wrongly brought into question his service to this country,” says Jenny.
The media organisation printed an apology and paid Harry “substantial damages”, which he is donating to the Invictus Games Foundation “so he could feel something good had come out of the situation”, adds Jenny.
It’s not the first time Harry, 36, has filed a lawsuit against a newspaper – in 2019, he sued the Daily Mirror and The Sun for hacking his phone – and of course Meghan, 39, is in the midst of her own case against Associated Newspapers.
This story is from the February 15, 2021 edition of New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
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This story is from the February 15, 2021 edition of New Zealand Woman's Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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