Prince Harry’s surprise appearance at a tabloid hearing

Prince Harry made a surprise appearance Monday morning at the High Court in London where a hearing is being held against the publisher of the Daily Mail, Associated Newspaper (ANL), accused by several celebrities of having collected information in a way illegal.

Footage from the Sky News channel showed the 38-year-old prince stepping out of a minibus and entering the building where, at a hearing scheduled to last four days, the ‘Daily Mail’ editor » attempts to defeat the lawsuits initiated by the youngest son of King Charles, the singer Elton John, or the actress Liz Hurley.

The surprise appearance in London of Prince Harry, who only exceptionally visits the United Kingdom, comes just over a month before the king’s coronation on May 6. Exiled to the United States after leaving the monarchy with a bang in 2020, Harry and his wife Meghan have been invited to the ceremony, but have not yet made it known publicly whether they will honor the invitation.

The return of the ‘Sussex’ to the UK to attend the coronation has been the subject of much speculation in the British media in recent months, following the couple’s vicious attacks on the royal family.

After a documentary aired on Netflix in December, Harry released his controversial memoir ‘The Substitute’ in early January, in which he recounts his drug and alcohol-ridden teenage years and details the breakdown of his relationship with his father, the King. Charles III, and his brother William.

The king was originally due to be absent from the UK on Monday and Tuesday for a state visit to France, which was postponed due to the social climate and sometimes violent protests linked to President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.

In the legal proceedings initiated in London, the six plaintiffs accuse ANL of having employed detectives to wiretap them, in their car or at their home.

When announcing the proceedings in early October, the group had “totally and unequivocally refuted these preposterous defamations which appear to be nothing more than a planned and orchestrated attempt to embroil the Mail’s headlines in the wiretapping scandal concerning 30-year-old articles”.

The British tabloid press was shaken about ten years ago by several scandals of illegal wiretapping practiced from the beginning of the 2000s.

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