The Duke of Sussex is suing The Mail on Sunday, which he claims was responsible for “distortion and misrepresentation of facts” with an exclusive story about his police safety. Harry’s lawyers said in the papers for a new injury case that the intent of Mail’s article was that he “lied in his first public statements.”
His legal representatives claim that the “defamatory” piece described how “Harry tried to keep his legal battle for bodyguards secret” and then claimed a few minutes after The Mail on Sunday broke the story, his “PR machine tried to put positive spin on the dispute “.
Harry’s lawyers claim the article is said to have inspired a “fed insanity of hostile comments” directed at the Duke.
As a result, the 37-year-old royal has reportedly “suffered serious damage to his reputation and significant damage, embarrassment and distress that continues”.
In addition to causing the Duke stress and emotional turmoil, his lawyers say the play also undermines his charitable and philanthropic work, particularly his efforts to tackle online misinformation.
The royal cinema Angela Levin reacted to this new lawsuit, claiming that the Duke’s concession makes him “sound so fragile”.
She also referred to Harry’s previous experience of serving in the Army in her reference to the case.
On Twitter, the royal expert wrote: “Harry says he has” slightly increased agitation and anxiety and damage to his emotions “over press comments about 24/7 protection of him. He sounds so fragile.
“Where has the brave soldier gone and how can he believe he is the only one who has had sad feelings over the last 2 years.”
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The statement noted: “The Duke first offered to personally pay for British police protection for himself and his family in January 2020 in Sandringham.”
It later added: “He remains willing to cover the cost of security, so as not to impose on the UK taxpayer.”
In addition, his lawyers said: “Britain will always be Prince Harry’s home and a country he wants his wife and children to be safe in. With the lack of police protection, there is too much personal risk.
His legal representatives added: “Prince Harry hopes that his petition – after almost two years of requests for security in the UK – will resolve this situation. It is due to a leak in a British tabloid, with hidden timing, we feel the need to release a statement that sets the facts straight. “
The Duke is suing the newspaper for coverage of the trial through the High Court in London.
Associated Newspapers Limited – the company that publishes The Mail on Sunday – defends the claim.
The publication is the same that Harry’s wife Meghan Markle successfully sued for invasion of privacy and copyright.
The Duchess won her privacy case in February when Supreme Court Justice Lord Justice Warby ruled in her favor without a full trial, saying the publication of excerpts from a letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle had been “manifestly excessive and thus illegal”.
The judge said most of the published content was about Meghan’s “behavior, her feelings of anxiety about her father’s behavior as she saw it, and the resulting rift between them”.
He added: “These are inherently private and personal matters.”