London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 26, 2025

Prince Harry's legal battle with the media

Prince Harry's legal battle with the media

Every generation of Britain's monarchy comes to a fresh deal with Britain's media.

This unspoken understanding - in which the royals get favourable coverage in return for a steady supply of access, stories and pictures - is a significant feature of Britain's unwritten constitution.

As with any deal, the benefits are meant to accrue to both sides.

Broadly, through the stories the media tell about our monarchy, the former get content and the latter get consent.

But would the children of Princess Diana, described by her brother as "the most hunted person of the modern age" and who was being chased by paparazzi when she died, want to sign up for such a deal?

A childhood legacy


Over the past year, in more than 80 hours of interviews, I have researched a two-part TV series called the Princes and the Press and a five-part podcast called Harry, Meghan and the Media.

In that time, it has become clear that Princes William and Harry have a very different relationship with the media to earlier generations.

They have, for example, been perhaps more prepared than their forebears to use legal means to address stories they consider wrong or intrusive.

Prince William and Prince Harry have a new relationship with the media, shaped by their childhood


Meghan Markle's legal battle with the Mail on Sunday is one such case in point.

And there is another, bigger legal dispute which is the context in which Prince Harry's relationship with the media has to be viewed.

This shows his actions today aren't simply responses to the latest negative headline, brutal front page, or nasty hashtag.

Instead, they are shaped both by the hounding of his mother - and the press's pursuit of him when he was a youth.

This was a huge feature of his childhood, affecting many of his relationships, and leading to his being front-page fodder in the years after Diana's death.

Years when Britain's tabloids were, perhaps, in their pomp.

'He was the new Diana'


In the mid-2000s, Prince Harry dated Chelsea Davy.

One man who pursued stories about her, but has never before spoken about it publicly, is Gavin Burrows.

Burrows is a private investigator. He says he was employed over a number of years by the News of the World and other British newspapers.

In his first on-the-record interview, he is clear about the attraction of Prince Harry to the tabloids.

"Harry," he says, "had basically become the new Diana".

Burrows's descriptions of the lengths he went to in pursuit of stories will be the first time many people have heard such detail from a private investigator.

He says Chelsy Davy was a particular target.

A private investigator says Chelsy Davy became a target for the press when she began dating Prince Harry


"There was a lot of voicemail hacking going on," Burrows says. "There was a lot of surveillance work on her phones, on her comms, Chelsy would brag to her friends when she was going to see him."

When I asked if her life became an object of fascination to Burrows, he said: "Yeah, medical records… had she had an abortion, sexual diseases, ex-boyfriends, vet 'em, check them…"

Burrows's testimony matters to Prince Harry because of what it may reveal about the culture of tabloids at the time. When I asked Burrows to describe that culture, he said: "Ruthless".

Ongoing litigation


Burrows is a witness in the litigation being brought by Prince Harry and others against the publisher of the News of the World, News Group Newspapers, which strongly disputes his claims.

It is important to note that News Group Newspapers, publisher of both papers, accepts a limited amount of unlawful activity occurred at the News of the World but denies wrongdoing at the Sun.

Private investigator Gavin Burrows is set to testify about the "ruthless" culture of parts of the press


Burrows decided to come forward after receiving a letter from Graham Johnson.

Johnson is a freelance journalist who runs Byline Investigates.

Byline Investigates is now separate to both Byline Times and Byline.com. The latter once counted Max Mosley, the late Formula 1 boss and campaigner for press reform, as a shareholder.

Johnson has admitted phone hacking when at the Sunday Mirror but for the past six years has been a campaigning journalist, working on unlawful newsgathering operations in the British media.

Johnson persuaded Burrows that he should speak out, because while the vast majority of claimants against News Group Newspapers have settled, a few haven't.

Those who haven't include Prince Harry, who is also bringing a claim against Mirror Group Newspapers for phone hacking.

I asked Peter Hunt, the former BBC royal correspondent, how big a moment it would be if Prince Harry gets his day in court, as he perhaps wants.

"I think it'll be massive," Hunt said, "because it's very striking isn't it? He [just] keeps going."

Many of Prince Harry's public pronouncements these days concern the media, with which he has had such a difficult relationship throughout his life.

He says he wants reform of the media, rather than just to be a victim of it.

The significance of Gavin Burrows and this ongoing litigation is that it shows Prince Harry intends to use the law as an instrument of that reform.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×