Prince Harry’s phone-hacking claims against a UK publisher were thrown out Thursday.
A judge also dismissed the Duke of Sussex’s claim that there was a “secret agreement” between Buckingham Palace and the press, calling the alleged arrangement implausible, according to the Daily Mail.
In his ruling, the judge said Harry’s case had “not reached the necessary threshold of plausibility and cogency.”
The Sun’s publisher celebrated the ruling as “a significant victory.”
Although the redheaded royal took a legal hit in court in his phone-hacking lawsuit, he still has the right to continue suing the newspaper for using other alleged illegal activities to procure information about him and his family.
A trial over the matter will begin in January barring any settlement reached ahead of time.
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Reps for Harry didn’t immediately return Pvnew’s request for comment.
Harry, 38, sued the now-defunct News of the World, the Sun and the Daily Mirror in 2019, claiming the tabloids had hacked his phone to obtain his voicemails between 1996 and 2011.
The “Spare” author, who no longer resides in the UK, is still in an ongoing lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspaper Limited, claiming the company had used unethical methods — such as tapping into his cellphone — to get inside scoops on his life.
His claims against the Sun came just days after his wife, Meghan Markle, sued the Mail on Sunday and its parent company, Associated Newspapers, for allegedly unlawfully publishing an anguished letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
In December 2021, the Court of Appeal in London upheld a High Court ruling from February that found the Mail on Sunday’s publication of the letter breached Meghan’s privacy.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, celebrated her “precedent-setting” win at the time, saying it had always been “an important measure of right versus wrong.”
“This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right,” the mom of two said in a statement to Pvnew.
