Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle are no strangers when it comes to suing the UK tabloids, but Thursday’s revelation was a jaw-dropper. The Duke of Sussex, along with Elizabeth Hurley, Elton John and husband David Furnish, Sadie Frost, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence have all filed a legal claim against the Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail portfolio of newspapers.
The allegations are serious, too — they involve claims of phone tapping and invasion of privacy. “These individuals have become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers,” the Hamlins law firm said in an official statement to BBC. The A-list celebrities probably feel violated because the claims are utterly shocking.
“The hiring of private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes,” “the commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people’s live, private telephone calls whilst they were taking place,” and “the payment of police officials, with corrupt links to private investigators, for inside, sensitive information,” the allegations read, “The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception, and “the accessing of bank accounts, credit histories and financial transactions through illicit means and manipulation.”
Associated Newspapers lashed back to Variety in a statement, “We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears which appear to be nothing more than a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old.” Calling them “unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims — based on no credible evidence,” the publisher thinks it’s retribution for other cases the claimants have pursued in the past. This will be Harry’s third lawsuit against them, and he and Meghan have been successful — so these allegations likely have strong merit based on the royal duo’s history with them.
Before you go, click here to see the most important celebrity lawsuits over the past 15 years.
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