Karachi: A court battle between the Mail and the MailOnline was settled by Prince Harry on Sunday, acknowledging what his legal team termed “significant damages” for a report claiming he had turned his back on the Royal Marines.
In a libel case involving news regarding his relationship with the British armed forces, Prince Harry on Monday accepted an apology and damages from the publisher of the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday and its web edition, MailOnline.
Harry sued Associated Newspapers for libel over two October stories that stated that after standing down as a senior prince, he had snubbed the Royal Marines.
“the baseless, false and defamatory stories published constituted not only a personal attack on the Duke’s character but also wrongly brought into question his service to this country.” the unfounded, false and defamatory stories published constituted not only a personal attack on the character of the Duke but also incorrectly challenged his service to this country.
The Duke had approached the Invictus Games Foundation about any damages earned, “so he could feel something good had come out of the situation,” his lawyer said. The size of the settlement was not made public.
Harry served in the British army for a decade. In legal papers, his attorneys said that he was “frustrated and saddened” that the stories would reduce his reputation with veterans.
As working royals, Harry and his wife, Meghan, stepped down and moved to the US in early 2019. His honorary military titles were put on hold, and as part of the monarchy’s review of the couple’s exit plans, they were due to be reviewed in March.
Lawyer Jenny Afia, representing Harry, said the publisher has accepted that allegations that he had turned his back on the force were false.
The articles were “baseless, false and defamatory” and “constituted not only a personal attack upon the Duke’s character but also wrongly brought into question his service to this country”, Afia said.
She said Harry was “proud to have served in the British armed forces for 10 years in Her Majesty’s name” and “has maintained active links with those forces ever since and will continue to do so in the future”.
After the brief remote hearing, a spokesperson for Harry said his “commitment to the military community is unquestionable.”
The Mail on Sunday printed an apology in December but it wasn’t enough to stop the lawsuit.
Harry will donate the damages to the Invictus Games Foundation, a charity for wounded or sick servicemen and women that he founded, she added. The amount of the damages was not disclosed.
On the other hand, following her marriage to Harry in 2018, Meghan is now suing Associated Newspapers for breaching privacy and copyright violation over publications that published parts of a letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle.
