Prince Harry’s legal action against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of the Sun newspaper, has begun.
The lawsuit accuses the publisher of gathering unlawful information. The Duke of Sussex is one of two claimants, the other is former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson.
This claim is separate from the phone hacking case Prince Harry brought against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), heard by the high court in 2023. That time the court ruled in favour of Prince Harry and decided that "widespread and habitual" phone hacking was carried out by MGN journalists between 1996 and 2011. MGN agreed to pay "a substantial additional sum" in damages to the Duke of Sussex, along with his legal costs and a sum of £140,600 already awarded to him by the judges.
Here is a closer look at the moments that led to the current legal case, which began on Tuesday January 21, dating back to 2005.
Full timeline of Prince Harry vs the Sun
November 2005
Buckingham Palace sparked a police inquiry with a complaint that Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid, News of the World, had reported that Prince William had a knee injury.
The Palace claimed that the information for the story must have came from a voicemail that was hacked.
January 2007
Two News of the World employees, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and royal editor Clive Goodman, were sentenced to six and four months each for hacking the phones of royal aides to listen to messages left by William and others.
Goodman later acknowledged hacking William’s phone 35 times and that of his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton over 150 times.
At the time, Murdoch’s company officially maintained that the illicit behaviour was the work of two rogue employees working without editors’ knowledge.
January 2011
British police reopened an investigation into tabloid phone hacking after News of the World said it had found “significant new information”.
April 2011
A few months later, the company admitted liability for the phone hacking and went on to agree to pay actress Sienna Miller £100,000 to settle a related lawsuit. This would be followed with various settled claims from both News of the World and its sister tabloid, the Sun, to celebrities, politicians, athletes and others.
July 2011
Later that year, the Guardian reported that News of the World journalists hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl in 2002, while police were in the process of searching for her.
The report sparked widespread outrage and prompted Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World.
November 2012
David Cameron, then the prime minister, ordered a judge-led inquiry into media ethics, concluding that some in the media had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained”.
Judge Brian Leveson recommended the creation of an independent press watchdog with government regulatory backing. His recommendations have thus far only been partly implemented.
October 2013
The trial of former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks began, along with various other defendants at the Old Bailey, charged with phone hacking and illegal payments to officials.
After an eight-month trial, Coulson was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Brooks was acquitted and went on to become chief executive of Murdoch’s British newspaper business, a position she still holds.
December 2015
England’s chief prosecutor said there will be no more criminal cases against Murdoch’s UK company or its employees, or against the 10 people under investigation from the rival Mirror Group Newspapers, including former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Both companies continued to settle hacking lawsuits out of court.
2019-onwards
Prince Harry entered the picture by launching lawsuits against three newspaper groups: Murdoch's News Group, the Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers.
His complaints centred on information gathering for stories about his schooldays, teenage shenanigans and relationships with girlfriends, claiming such stories were gained by hacking, bugging, deception or other forms of illegal intrusion.
February 2021
Harry’s wife, Meghan, won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over the publication of a letter she wrote in 2018 to her estranged father.
June 2023
Prince Harry became the first member of the British royal family in more than a century to appear in the witness box by testifying in his case against the Mirror Group.
December 2023
The case against the Mirror Group was won by the Duke of Sussex, with a judge ruling that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade.
Prince Harry would later say: “Our mission continues.”
January 21, 2025
The trial begins, with lawsuits by Prince Harry and Lord Watson against the Sun.
They are the only two remaining from a group of dozens of claimants, after others accepted settlements rather than risk potentially ruinous legal bills.
The Duke of Sussex is expected to testify in person during the 10-week trial.
Harry’s case against Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, continues.
