The Telegraph is one of the few British outlets doing in-depth royal-specific coverage of News Group Newspapers’ settlement with Prince Harry. The Mail has barely said a word, and the Sun… well, you know. What I mean with “royal-specific coverage” is that almost everyone is running this as a media/press story about how the mighty Murdochs blinked and got scared about all of the sh-t that was about to come out during this trial. There’s also been a wealth of coverage about how Harry managed to get something no other plaintiff has gotten: a public apology and a public admission of wrong-doing by NGN. NGN settled, not Harry. I also saw one British legal expert explain that if NGN was willing to admit their crimes publicly, Harry basically had no choice but to accept NGN’s settlement, because his case would have fallen apart (because NGN was basically conceding a huge part of what Harry was accusing them of). I bring this up because the Telegraph’s Hannah Furness (one of their royal reporters) has written an alternate-reality piece in which Harry sucks because NGN settled and admitted wrong-doing: “Meghan and the money: Are these the real reasons that our lost royal has finally settled? Rather than lay bare the tabloid grievances that have tormented him, Harry accepted a settlement from home – the question now is why?”
Prince Harry, our noble dragon slayer, has laid down his sword. With moments to spare, as teams of lawyers and a phalanx of press filled the High Court, he agreed to settle with News Group Newspapers (NGN) and avert what was expected to be the 10-week-long media trial of the century. It is the last thing anyone expected.
The Duke of Sussex, so vocal and so determined in his battle against the tabloid press, will now not have the full-scale “public inquiry” he was accused of wanting, as part of his quest to “change the media landscape” forever. Far from jetting into Britain to lay bare the tabloid grievances that have tormented him for so long, he accepted the settlement from home. The key question is, why?
Firstly, it cannot be ignored that this is a personal, emotional success for Prince Harry. For a man who has been so open about his pain and grief, the apology issued by the publisher about his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, will carry great meaning. That NGN “acknowledge and apologise for the distress caused to the Duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family” will also be incredibly important to Harry.
But can the Duke claim that, as hoped, he has changed the media landscape with his crusade? Not quite. In this regard, it is not what was said in NGN’s “full and unequivocal apology” that is key, but what was missing. There is no admission of phone hacking, surveillance or misuse of private information at the Sun; just the News of the World, which closed more than a decade ago. Admissions of “unlawful activity” are confined to private investigators, with no executive heads rolling, no forensic examination of any cover-up, and no airing of new details of the “serious intrusion” that NGN admits to.
As such, one wonders how quickly the elation of the personal victory may, behind the scenes as the adrenaline wears off, give way to deflation for the man who has called holding the British press to account his “life’s work”. Having set himself up as a champion of the voiceless (“I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned,” he cried poetically, after a legal victory last year), Prince Harry now finds himself – in terms of taking the stand – back among them. His quest to bring down part of the Murdoch empire has ended in a fizzle rather than a bang.
What could have persuaded the Duke to stop at this stage? The decision will inevitably raise questions about his finances – the settlement was an eight-figure sum, we are told. While other celebrities and civilians settled, with some saying they could not afford to pay the legal fees, Prince Harry planned to be the one who saw it through, with money as no object.
It is not clear to what extent his settlement is materially or morally different to the one he told the world his elder brother had made, with 2023 court papers claiming Prince William “has recently settled his claim against NGN behind the scenes”. One brother did so in private, and the other in public.
There will be question marks, too, about whether someone finally convinced Harry, a family man who is forging a new life on another continent, that his energies might be better spent elsewhere. The cost, both financially and mentally – as he relived his unhappy younger years – was huge, and the rift with his family significant, as his legal battles came to play a “central piece” in this, he said previously.
“It is not clear to what extent his settlement is materially or morally different to the one he told the world his elder brother had made.” Fantastically stupid – William made a secret deal with NGN, didn’t get a public apology or any kind of admission of NGN’s wrong-doing, and William and NGN still collaborate to this day, with William regularly giving exclusives to the Murdoch-owned Times of London. If anything, any attempt at comparison between the brothers highlights the fact that William looks like he’s been bought and paid for by the scummiest media figures in Britain, and that his office has been in open collaboration with NGN for years.
The larger effort is obviously to hold Harry to an impossible standard – why hasn’t Harry single-handedly changed the British media? Why won’t he spend another six years on this? Because he’s not the police and he’s not a politician, and these are not issues which can be solved through civil litigation alone.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
