Prince Harry has withdrawn his libel claim against the Mail on Sunday publisher, Associated Newspapers says.
The Duke of Sussex, 39, had sued over an article about his publicly-funded security arrangements when visiting the UK after stepping back as a senior royal.
In an article on the Daily Mail website the paper said he had “abandoned his case” hours before a court deadline.
It said the prince would be liable for the publisher’s £250,000 legal costs.
The Mail on Sunday article, published in February 2022, had reported on the prince’s legal challenge against the Home Office over changes to his publicly-funded security that had happened after he had stopped being a working royal and moved to the United States.
After the claim was dropped, a spokesperson for the Sussexes said the duke was instead focusing on the safety of his family and his legal case against the Home Office.
In this long-running libel case against Associated Newspapers, the prince had claimed the story falsely suggested he had “lied” and “cynically” tried to manipulate public opinion.
The headline said the duke had “tried to keep his legal fight with the government over police bodyguards a secret” and his lawyers argued the article was “an attack on his honesty and integrity”.
The publisher contested this claim, arguing the article expressed an “honest opinion” and did not cause “serious harm” to his reputation.
Last month, Prince Harry lost part of the legal battle after his lawyers failed to persuade a judge to throw out a strand of Associated Newspapers’ defense.
Mr Justice Nicklin said the newspaper group’s argument that the article was “honest opinion” had a “real prospect” of success.
The prince is still awaiting a ruling from a different judge on his claim against the Home Office that changing his level of personal protection when in the UK was “unlawful and unfair”.
Source:bbc.com
