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Is Harry’s High Court battle a way home? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christan Amiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, January twenty, twenty twenty six. Randa Abdelfhatar has
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  Speaker 1: ramped up her defamation action against Peter Malanowskis, the anti
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  Speaker 1: Israel author who's dumping from the Adelaide Writers Week lineup
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  Speaker 1: caused the event to be canceled. Claimed the South Australian
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  Speaker 1: premier made quote false claims against her. In a radio interview,
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  Speaker 1: Abdelphatar accused Melanowskus of doubling down and said she had
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  Speaker 1: quote no choice but to see this through until justice
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  Speaker 1: is served. He's not the nation's top ranked tennis player
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  Speaker 1: for nothing. Alex Dimenor has cruised through to the second
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  Speaker 1: round of the Australian Open, defeating American McKenzie MacDonald in
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  Speaker 1: straight sets. He'll face world number ninety Hamad Majedovich on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: Those stories alive right now Australian dot com dot Au
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  Speaker 1: Prince Harry returns to England's High Court for what might
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  Speaker 1: be the final time. This week. He's suing the best
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  Speaker 1: selling Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers for allegedly
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  Speaker 1: invading his privacy, but could the end of the Duke
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  Speaker 1: of Sussex's long legal battle against the British Press finally
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  Speaker 1: opened the door to reconciliation with his royal family. That's
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  Speaker 1: today's episode.
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  Speaker 2: Though it only lasted twenty minutes, the examination of the
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  Speaker 2: Prince evidently wearied him exceedingly and made him extremely nervous.
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  Speaker 2: He kept changing his position and did not seem able
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  Speaker 2: to keep his hands still.
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  Speaker 1: This is how a newspaper described the last time a
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  Speaker 1: member of the British royal family appeared in the Ornate
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  Speaker 1: High Court of Justice in London. The year was eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety one, and the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria's son
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  Speaker 1: and the future King Edward the Seventh, was the star
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  Speaker 1: witness in slander proceedings brought by his friend, Sir William
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  Speaker 1: Gordon Cumming. The story goes that the pair had attended
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  Speaker 1: an illegal game of baccarat together, and Gordon Cumming wound
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  Speaker 1: up being accused of cheating by other players in the game,
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  Speaker 1: a slight apparently so offensive the Prince's friend sued when
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  Speaker 1: word of their extracurricular activities got out. Seats in the
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  Speaker 1: court's public gallery were reportedly the hottest ticket in town,
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  Speaker 1: and were again more than a century later when in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, another prince entered the witness box.
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  Speaker 3: The Duke of Sussex sued the people behind the Daily
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  Speaker 3: Mirror and two other British tabloid publications. He alleged their
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  Speaker 3: journalists used phone hacking and private investigators to gather information
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  Speaker 3: about his life over a fifteen year period.
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  Speaker 1: Prince Harry was awarded some standial damages in that bout
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  Speaker 1: against the Mirror group and settled a separate claim against
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  Speaker 1: the publisher of The Sun newspaper outside of court. Now
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  Speaker 1: he's back for more Prince Harry Versus the Tabloid Press
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  Speaker 1: Round three, who's accused the British press of bullying and
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  Speaker 1: harassment and has blamed it for the death of his
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  Speaker 1: mother Diana. The Duke of Sussex, as well as other celebrities,
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  Speaker 1: claimed their privacy was breached by the publisher of the
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  Speaker 1: Daily Mail and associated newspapers. Prince Harry, along with popstar
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  Speaker 1: Elton John and husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and
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  Speaker 1: Sadie Frost, Baroness Dorene Lawrence, and former politician Simon Hughes
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  Speaker 1: allege for decades the Daily Mail and The Mail on
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  Speaker 1: Sunday newspapers intercepted their voice mails, tapped landlines, illegally obtained
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  Speaker 1: medical records and even bugged their homes. It's a claim
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  Speaker 1: Associated Newspapers, which publishes The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: has vehemently denied. The Duke of Sussex is expected to
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  Speaker 1: give evidence in the proceedings this week, a move royal
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  Speaker 1: watchers say has driven a wedge between Harry and his father,
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  Speaker 1: King Charles.
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  Speaker 4: Now this has put the relationship between Prince Harry and
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  Speaker 4: his father, King Charles in a very awkward situation because
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  Speaker 4: King Charles is the judiciary in the UK, he is
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  Speaker 4: the Crown, and so in essence, Harry has been suing
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  Speaker 4: in his father's court.
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magne is the Australian's europe correspondent.
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  Speaker 4: And we can see that some of that frigid atmosphere
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  Speaker 4: is starting to unthor and that's partly because the litigation
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  Speaker 4: is now studying to go away. This is the last
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  Speaker 4: case that we know of that Harry is involved in,
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  Speaker 4: and this is an eight ten week trial and once
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  Speaker 4: this is over then there will be no legal impediment
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  Speaker 4: for Charles and Harry to have their relationship. But of
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  Speaker 4: course there is the very much the difficulties they've had
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  Speaker 4: over the last few years where Harry has basically broken
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  Speaker 4: the trust of the royal family and divulged all of
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  Speaker 4: this information to the press and in his book and
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  Speaker 4: on Oprah Winfrey. So there is an interesting dynamic at
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  Speaker 4: play here whether the end of these legal battles with
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  Speaker 4: Harry and the newspaper industry in the UK will mean
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  Speaker 4: a new relationship with his father.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Harry of course lives these days in California with
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  Speaker 1: his wife Megan, where they run all manner of side hustles,
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  Speaker 1: making podcasts and cooking shows and whatever else. We know.
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  Speaker 1: His relationship, as you said, with King Charles and his
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  Speaker 1: brother Prince William, is strained and has been now for
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  Speaker 1: some time. Should we expect to see them supporting him
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  Speaker 1: in court or in spirit?
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  Speaker 4: This week we will see zero's support from the royal
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  Speaker 4: family in regards to Harry's action in the court. They
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  Speaker 4: will not want to be seen anywhere near the court.
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  Speaker 4: I think Prince William is up in Scotland on a
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  Speaker 4: few engagements. I think King Charles will be otherwise engaged
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  Speaker 4: and won't even see his son when he's in the
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  Speaker 4: UK this week, so they will not be anywhere near it. Now.
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  Speaker 4: Whether they are providing any support behind the scenes, I
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  Speaker 4: doubt it. The relationship between the members of the royal
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  Speaker 4: family and Harry are very much strained. They feel that
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  Speaker 4: he should not be taking this action and they feel
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  Speaker 4: that their personal relationships with him is broken beyond repair.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Harry has had a tense relationship with the press
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  Speaker 1: for his entire life really following the death of his mother,
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  Speaker 1: Princess Diana. It's clearly caused some really big rifts to
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  Speaker 1: appear between his immediate family members, as you said, So
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  Speaker 1: what's he hoping to achieve by bringing this complaint all
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  Speaker 1: the way to England's High Court do you think?
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  Speaker 4: Well, he obviously wants some satisfaction in bringing the UK
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  Speaker 4: media to heal that he feels that their behaviors were
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  Speaker 4: unwarranted and illegal in the past, and that he wants
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  Speaker 4: some sort of vindication for how he feels. He's a
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  Speaker 4: very angry man as we've seen, and he wants retribution
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  Speaker 4: and so he's doing this through the courts because he
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  Speaker 4: feels it by extracting large amounts of money and winning
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  Speaker 4: the case on principle that it proves his reason for
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  Speaker 4: being angry for these many years. Whether that will be
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  Speaker 4: the case even if he wins the case, whether it
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  Speaker 4: makes him feel any better, I don't know. That's for
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  Speaker 4: a psychologist to answer. But it's a very complex issue
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  Speaker 4: for Harry to deal with, isn't it. You know, he's
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  Speaker 4: estrange from his family. He lives on the other side
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  Speaker 4: of the world. His children have barely met their grandparents.
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  Speaker 4: He's very much isolated in California, even though he tells
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  Speaker 4: everybody what a great life he's having. But if we
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  Speaker 4: look at what has he actually done in the last
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  Speaker 4: few years. We see him as a prop in his
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  Speaker 4: wife's TV show, We see him clearly being a devoted father,
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  Speaker 4: but what else has he been doing it with his life?
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  Speaker 4: We see part of his activities within Victors Games being
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  Speaker 4: very much a pr exercise, and it's rumored that he's
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  Speaker 4: going to appear in the UK in the next few months,
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  Speaker 4: a year out from next year's in Victors Games, which
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  Speaker 4: will be held in England. Now this is being seen
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  Speaker 4: within palace circles as perhaps a bit of a positioning
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  Speaker 4: by Harry and Meghan to create more proximity to the
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  Speaker 4: royal family, because that is what their brand survives on
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  Speaker 4: in the US, that they need to have this association
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  Speaker 4: with the royal family, and so by coming over to
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  Speaker 4: England and having a quasi kind of royal to us,
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  Speaker 4: wanning about England and promoting the Invictus Games could help
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  Speaker 4: that branding and reinforce the fact that he is a prince,
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  Speaker 4: he is six in line to the throne, and that
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  Speaker 4: perhaps is not as distant from the royal family as
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  Speaker 4: What is really the.
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  Speaker 1: Case coming up? What could another court loss mean for
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  Speaker 1: the British press? This case could also have profound ramifications
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  Speaker 1: for the UK's media, which reports on the royals and
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  Speaker 1: celebrities in very spirited way and has done for a
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  Speaker 1: very long time. Is there a fear amongst British publishers.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that this could permanently change the media
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  Speaker 1: landscape if Harry and his co complainants are successful in
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  Speaker 1: the High Court?
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  Speaker 4: No, that is a short answer. The media has changed
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  Speaker 4: in the last decade anyway, and the relationship with the
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  Speaker 4: royal family and the press is already very regulated and
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  Speaker 4: already has very interesting arrangements. I can give you some
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  Speaker 4: examples about photos of the royal children. You will not
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  Speaker 4: see any photos in UK media of any of the
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  Speaker 4: royal children, and that's because of a deal that's been
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  Speaker 4: done with the press in return for an occasional photo
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  Speaker 4: that's been set up and stage managed being released to
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  Speaker 4: the public to the media on certain big occasions. So
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  Speaker 4: you've already got deals behind the scenes that are there
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  Speaker 4: to help protect members of the royal family but also
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  Speaker 4: provide some access for the public to understand the work
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  Speaker 4: that they do. And so this has been going on
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  Speaker 4: for a very long time. So I don't think that
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  Speaker 4: this court case would really change any of those deals.
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  Speaker 4: That won't change any of what's been going on, because
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  Speaker 4: if we look at this actual case, we're talking about
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  Speaker 4: instances that happened fifteen years ago, twenty years ago. So
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  Speaker 4: the world has moved on a lot, especially in regards
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  Speaker 4: to social media, that the newspapers really don't have the
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  Speaker 4: big sway and influence that perhaps they may have done
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  Speaker 4: in the past.
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  Speaker 1: Jacqueline Magnet is The Australian's europe correspondent. You can read
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  Speaker 1: all about Prince Harry's latest appearance in the High Court
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com, dot au