Prince Harry emerged from the High Court on Monday afternoon, flashing a confident smile that suggested he already felt the first round was his.
Opening day of high-stakes privacy battle with publishers daily mail I watched hours of detailed presentations, but the Duke of Sussex seemed unfazed.
The proceedings, overseen by Judge Nicklin, will restart at 10.30am on Tuesday and Harry is expected to return to court later this week to give evidence himself.
At the center of the case are lawsuits filed by seven public figures against Associated Newspapers Limited, the company behind the Daily mail and Sunday mail.
At Monday’s hearing, attorney David Sherborne began laying out what he described as a pattern dating back more than two decades.
Speaking on behalf of the plaintiffs, he alleged a sustained reliance on private investigators throughout Mail titles and named several people he said were linked to the practice.
Among the examples raised was an investigator supposedly tasked with obtaining information about a burglary at the Queen’s cousin’s home.
Sherborne also referenced Jonathan Rees, a private investigator who was once famous for boasting about the reach of his information network.
According to him, Rees had taken particular interest in the murder of Stephen Lawrence because of the intense public attention surrounding the case.
The court then turned to the individual claims, first filed in October 2022.
The Baroness Lawrence case focuses on five articles published between the late 1990s and 2007.
Attention later focused on actress Sadie Frost, whose claim centers on 11 stories and two specific incidents.
Three journalists are mainly named in these articles.
One draft, written but never published, dealt with an ectopic pregnancy Frost suffered in 2003.
Sherborne told the court the level of detail contained in the material was deeply personal, noting that even members of Frost’s own family were unaware of the situation.
As proceedings paused for the day, Prince Harry and Liz Hurley were seen leaving court with smiles.
Sherborne will continue to outline the remaining claims when the hearing resumes, before the editors present their own opening arguments.
