Prince Harry's court battle against British tabloids reaches final chapter

LONDON (AP) — Tens of millions of dollars are on the line as Prince Harry returned to court Monday for the third and final chapter in his legal quest to tame the British tabloids.

Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, is among a group of seven high-profile plaintiffs who accuse the publisher of the Daily Mail of invading their privacy by using unlawful information-gathering tactics to snoop on them for sensational headlines.

Harry, Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost and others allege that Associated Newspapers Ltd. hired private investigators to bug their cars, obtain their private records and eavesdrop on phone calls.

The publisher has denied the allegations and called them preposterous.

Attorney David Sherborne opened his case by saying there was a culture at Associated Newspapers that spanned decades to unlawfully dig up dirt “that wrecked the lives of so many.”

He said the company’s vigorous denials, destruction of records and “masses upon masses of missing documents” had prevented the claimants from learning what the newspapers had done.

“They swore that they were a clean ship,” Sherborne said. “Associated knew that these emphatic denials were not true. … They knew they had skeletons in their closet.”

The trial in London’s High Court is expected to last nine weeks and will see the return of Harry to the witness box for the second time since he made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior member of the royal family to testify in more than a century.

Harry, wearing a dark blue suit, waved cheerfully at reporters and said “good morning” as he entered the court building via a side entrance. He took a seat in the back row of the courtroom near Hurley and Frost.

The case was one of many that had emerged from the widespread phone hacking scandal in which some journalists began intercepting voicemail messages around the turn of this century and continued for more than a decade.

Harry won a court judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.K. tabloid made an unprecedented apology for intruding on Harry's life for years, and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.

Harry's self-proclaimed mission to reform the media is more personal and goes far beyond headlines that attempted to document his party boy youth and romance ups and downs.

He holds the press responsible for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris. He also blames them for persistent attacks on his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that led them to leave royal life and move to the United States in 2020.

The trial comes as Harry tries to repair a damaged relationship with his family since he moved to America and burned the bridge behind him by penning a scorching 2023 memoir, “Spare,” and airing other family grievances in a Netflix series.

Frosty relations with his father, King Charles III, appear to be thawing a bit after the two met for tea last fall when Harry was last in town.

But a reunion this time looks unlikely.

The start of the trial coincides with Charles' trip to Scotland and Harry's visit is expected to be limited to the opening of the trial and his early testimony.

Defense lawyer Antony White said the lawsuits were based on inferences from trying to connect investigator payments to various articles. But he said “leaky” friends of the celebrities were a major source of the stories.

“This is in reality little more than guesswork — it involves jumping to conclusions based on insufficient evidence, or worse, artificially selecting and presenting evidence to fit the preconceived agenda," White wrote in his opening statement. “It also ignores the fact that references in articles to a ‘friend’, or similar, as a source can be accurate."

He said witnesses, from editors to reporters who have worked for the newspapers for decades, were “lining up” to dispute the allegations and explain the source of each article.

Associated Newspapers also argues that the claims, dating as far back as 1993, were brought too late when the suits were filed in 2022. Judge Matthew Nicklin refused to throw out the cases on those grounds but will reconsider that defense after hearing the evidence.

A private investigator whose name is on a sworn statement supporting the claims of Harry and the celebrities has filed another statement denying he ever snooped on them.

During an early hearing in the case, Sherborne said his clients were not aware they were phone hacking victims until Gavin Burrows and other investigators came forward in 2021 to “do the right thing” and help those he targeted.

Burrows said he “must have done hundreds of jobs” for the Mail between 2000 and 2005, and that Harry, John and his husband, David Furnish, and Hurley and Frost were “just a small handful of my targets.”

But he has since signed another statement saying he had not been hired by Associated Newspapers to do any unlawful work.

It's unclear what impact his conflicting statements will have on the case.

The other claimants are anti-racism activist Doreen Lawrence and former politician Simon Hughes.

Britain's Prince Harry waves as he arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Lawyer David Sherborne arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Britain's Prince Harry, Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Britain's Prince Harry arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Britain's Prince Harry waves as he arrives at London's High Court to lead a group, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, accusing the Daily Mail's publisher of privacy invasion through unlawful tactics in a trial that is part of a wider phone hacking scandal in London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

FILE - Prince Harry waves as he leaves the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

ROME (AP) — Serie A leader Inter Milan conceded a late equalizer and was held 1-1 by Atalanta at home on Saturday, leaving the door open for AC Milan to further close the gap to its rival.

Francesco Esposito put Inter ahead in the 26th minute, but Nikola Krstović scored for Atalanta in the 82nd to split the points.

Inter was coming off a 1-0 loss to Milan in the league last weekend. Now it leads its crosstown nemesis by eight points before Milan visits Lazio on Sunday.

Inter has only two wins in its last seven games overall, a run that includes being eliminated from the Champions League knockout rounds playoff by Norwegian upstart Bodø/Glimt.

Inter’s Cristian Chivu was sent off in the 85th after back-to-back bookings.

Seventh-placed Atalanta showed more resilience than in the 6-1 defeat it suffered to Bayern Munich in the Champions League’s round-of-16 this week. It visits Bayern for their second leg on Wednesday.

Napoli fought back to beat Lecce 2-1 and pull to within nine points of Inter with nine games remaining.

Lecce center back Jamil Siebert put the visitors ahead in the third minute, but the defending champions got goals in the second half from Rasmus Hoejlund in the 46th and Matteo Politano in the 67th to ensure they capitalized on Inter's stumble.

Juventus midfielder Jérémie Boga scored for a third league game in a row to help beat Udinese 1-0 and consolidate its hold on fourth place.

Boga joined the team from Turin in the winter transfer window.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Atalanta's Kamaldeen Sulemana holds Inter Milan's Davide Frattesi during the Serie A soccer match between Inter Milan and Atalanta in Milan, Italy, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Inter Milan's Carlos Augusto, left, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan react after the Serie A soccer match between Inter Milan and Atalanta in Milan, Italy, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram reacts during the Serie A soccer match between Inter Milan and Atalanta in Milan, Italy, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)