Prince Harry, Elton John and Co-Claimants Ordered to Pay £9.54 Million After Losing Daily Mail Hacking Case
Prince Harry, Elton John and five other claimants have been ordered to pay an initial £9.54 million ($13 million) toward the legal costs of the Daily Mail's publisher after losing their phone-hacking lawsuit in London's High Court.
Judge Mr. Justice Nicklin issued the ruling on 21 August 2026, ordering the interim payment to be due by 28 August. The sum is a down payment: further hearings will determine the full costs owed to Associated Newspapers Limited, the Daily Mail's publisher, which told the court it had incurred £34.5 million ($45.8 million) in legal fees over the course of the nine-week trial. The judge made an exceptional order allowing the publisher to recover up to that full £34.5 million ($47 million) figure because of the way the case was brought Billboard.
The seven claimants — Prince Harry, Elton John and five others — had alleged that Associated Newspapers unlawfully obtained information by hacking into messages, tapping landlines and acquiring medical records, then used that material for Daily Mail stories. In July, the High Court dismissed those claims in full Billboard.
Judge Nicklin's August ruling detailed the "conduct of the trial" and was sharply critical of the claimants' legal team. The court found that the claimants had made unsupportable allegations that senior executives at Associated Newspapers had lied to the Leveson Inquiry — the 2011 public investigation into British press practices that followed the News of the World phone-hacking scandal Billboard.
The financial gap between the two sides is stark. Reuters reported that while Associated Newspapers ran up £34.5 million in costs, the claimants had only a much smaller amount available Reuters. The publisher had initially sought an interim payment of £13 million; the judge set the figure lower, at £9.54 million, to be paid before the full costs assessment concludes Reuters.
The trial itself lasted nine weeks, with legal costs running to tens of millions of pounds on both sides Reuters. It was one of the last major civil actions tied to the wave of British newspaper hacking litigation that followed the Leveson Inquiry era.
Elton John and his co-claimants have until 2 October to file an appeal against the ruling Billboard. Whether any of the seven pursue that route will determine whether the case ends here or extends into another costly chapter.
