Prince Harry has suffered the “most complete” and “totally self-inflicted humiliation” of his career during his doomed return to the United Kingdom, according to a pair of royal experts.
“What has happened today, it’s a cataclysmic disaster,” said the Daily Beast’s royal expert and European editor-at-large, Tom Sykes, on The Royalist podcast.
In a stinging blow to Harry, a judge in Britain dismissed every claim in a lawsuit that the Duke of Sussex and six celebrity co-claimants brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, meaning his six-year-long war with the British tabloids ended in defeat.
Sykes added that the judgment lands at an “absolutely terrible time for Harry, just as it appears that King Charles has finally run out of patience with his errant son, denying him rooms at Buckingham Palace.”
Harry was in the U.K. on what was supposed to be a triumphant homecoming when the verdict landed. But the trip had already descended into embarrassing chaos on Monday, when his team announced he had accepted an offer to stay at Buckingham Palace, only for the palace to say minutes later that the offer had been withdrawn.
Valentine Low, a former royal correspondent for The Times, argued that Harry’s latest courtroom defeat is also the one that hurts most.
“The Mail was the target he really had in his sights, and it meant a lot to him. And to lose that one and to lose it so comprehensively is very wounding,” Low told Sykes.
Harry’s lawsuit also came with a painful price tag, with the combined legal costs from the 11-week, 45-day trial estimated at around $53.5 million. The ruling leaves Harry and his co-claimants—Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Sir Simon Hughes—to cover their own legal expenses and pay millions toward the Mail’s costs.
“Meghan’s going to have to sell a whole lot more jam. I’m serious,” Low quipped, referring to the Duchess of Sussex’s troubled jam business venture. “Harry’s not got that kind of money. So, one does wonder, you know... who’s bankrolling this court case because there’s no way Harry’s got all those millions to pay all those legal costs.”
Harry and the co-claimants had accused Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, of phone hacking and intruding into their private lives between 1993 and 2011. But in his ruling, Judge Matthew Nicklin said that Harry and the other high-profile claimants had failed to prove “that the information complained of had been obtained unlawfully.”
In a joint statement with Lawrence, Harry called the ruling “a complete and obvious whitewash,” according to People.
“We came to Court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither,” they said, adding, “the lengths to which the Court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted.”
The Sussex’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Sykes noted that Harry’s U.K. visit was intended as a “big rebrand,” a chance for the prince to reshape his image after leaving his role as a working royal and moving to California with his family.
But Harry’s visit was mired in controversy before it could even begin. His team had initially said he, Meghan, and their children were coming to the U.K.—only to reverse course at the last minute and say Harry would be traveling alone due to security concerns. Sykes suggested that the sudden reversal was a “cynical” attempt to reclaim taxpayer-funded police protection.
Join veteran royal correspondent Tom Sykes in the throne room to find out how the secret world of the palace really operates—every bit of royal tea you could need. New Royalist podcasts will be released every Tuesday on YouTube, and the next day on all podcast platforms.
