Prince Harry’s latest legal case to go to trial but his phone hacking claims are thrown out of court

Prince Harry, 38, has received an update from his legal battle against News Group Newspapers – and it won’t have been the news he would have been hoping for.

On Thursday, Mr Justice Fancourt revealed that the Duke can not bring his claim against the newspaper group in regards to phone hacking, however, the rest of his claim regarding “unlawful information” gathering can proceed.

Harry and his lawyers wanted to amend their case to uncover a “secret relationship” between the palace and the newspaper group, but this has been thrown out of court.

But Mr Justice Fancourt rejected Harry’s bid to rely on the alleged agreement as part of his claim, ruling: “I am unable to conclude that there is a sufficiently plausible evidential basis for the new case based on the secret agreement to justify the grant of permission to amend at a late stage of the proceedings.”

What is Prince Harry’s legal case about?

Prince Harry has made claims regarding the newspaper group using illegal methods to obtain information about him in order to run stories over a 10-year period.

Speaking to ITV’s Tom Bradby to promote his bombshell memoir “Spare”, Harry talked about his continued determination to hold the press accountable. He said: “They want to hold us and the rich and powerful to account and they want to police society – then who’s policing them?”

He attended the trial in person in June, and faced hours of questioning.

What did Prince Harry say in court?

The royal detailed experiences throughout his childhood and beyond. A lot of the focus was around his relationship with former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and ultimately its breakdown. “These kinds of articles made me feel as though my relationship with Chelsy was always set to be doomed,” he said. 

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“Ultimately, these factors led her to make the decision that a Royal life was not for her, which was incredibly upsetting for me at the time.” he continued.

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Talking about growing up in the royal family and in the public eye, Harry said: “As a child, every single one of these articles played an important and destructive role in my growing up.”

He also added: “I now realise that my acute paranoia of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after all,” after talking about payments made to private investigators used to gather information on him.