Prince Harry is suing the Mail on Sunday’s parent company, Associated Newspapers Limited, over an article published in February about his case against the UK Home Office over his request for security for his family. The Mail on Sunday’s article about Harry’s issue with the UK Home Office read as follows:
“Exclusive: How Prince Harry tried to keep his legal fight over bodyguards a secret… then minutes after MoS broke the story his PR machine tried to put positive spin on the dispute.”
Today, Harry secured a victory in the first stage of his lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday:
ð˜½ð™ð™€ð˜¼ð™†ð™„ð™‰ð™‚: An article in The Mail on Sunday about the Prince Harry's legal claim against the British Home Office has just been ruled as defamatory by a High Court judge. The tabloid claimed he tried to keep his legal fight about security with the government “a secretâ€.
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) July 8, 2022
Now it’s up to Associated Newspapers to file a defence. If they do file a defence, they’ll have to prove that they did not lie, that the Mail on Sunday did not defame Harry, and that they were reporting truthfully …which… I mean it’s the Mail on Sunday/Daily Mail. It’s not like they have a great relationship with the truth.
They also don’t have a great legal record right now against the Sussexes, because just last year, Meghan Markle won her case against the Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement.
And yet….
Tobyn Andreae, who was deputy editor of the Daily Mail until very recently, has just been hired by Prince Charles and Clarence House as the new communications secretary! The future king of England’s new press secretary worked for a publication that gets busted for LYING ALL THE TIME – and not only that, but lying about the future king’s family members…what the f-ck are they doing over there?!
As for Harry and Meghan – they’re obviously taking it to the UK tabloids whenever they f-ck around, which is consistent with their campaign against disinformation. In his lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday, Harry’s lawyers argue that the tabloid wanted to “manipulate and confuse public opinion” and that the articles were “an attack on his honesty and integrity and undermine his fitness to be involved both in charitable and philanthropic work in general, and in efforts to tackle online misinformation in particular (through the Archewell Foundation).”
For the gossip public, this is the part that’s trickier to unpack. Because a lot of people can’t make the connection. Even the ones who know that the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail and the Sun etc are full of sh-t may not be entirely conscious of how these tabloids and their reports have, over time, shaped their views on the Sussexes. Those headlines are unavoidable – and it’s not unlike how Facebook and other social media platforms have radicalised some of our aunts, uncles, cousins, high school friends, and neighbours. That’s how disinformation works. But I’m about to get an influx of messages from people telling me they’re not those people, they hate Harry and Meghan based on the facts.
So on the legal front, the Mail on Sunday might have lost, but they and other agents of disinformation have already been winning a war that involves more than just Harry and Meghan.