Prince Harry’s bid to amend his ongoing lawsuit against the NGN network has been denied. The proposed changes, which included extending the lawsuit’s timespan and potentially involving Rupert Murdoch and Piers Morgan, were not approved by the London High Court.
What’s Prince Harry’s lawsuit about?
Author of “The Spare” and over 40 other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. newspaper company, News Group Newspapers, alleging unlawful information gathering and phone hacking.
Harry and the plaintiffs sought to include new accusations against Murdoch and Morgan in the ongoing lawsuit. These new claims assert that Murdoch, who served the company in the mid-1990s, was aware of its unlawful activities, a claim allegedly denied by the NGN network.
However, the High Court declined the request to amend the existing litigation. Nonetheless, the plaintiffs retain the option to file a new lawsuit to address these claims.
Why did Prince Harry request for a change in the lawsuit claims?
As reported by Reuters, the second son of the reigning monarch sought to extend the lawsuit’s timeframe beyond the mid-1990s to 2016. He aimed to incorporate articles concerning his mother, Princess Diana, from the 1990s, and his wife, Meghan Markle, from later years.
However, Harry’s request to expand the timeframe before 1996 and after 2011 has been rejected. A representative from NGN released a statement following the court hearing. “At a March 2024 hearing, the Claimants attempted to introduce broad allegations into their pleadings,” the statement noted.
The newspaper company argued against these additional claims, deeming them irrelevant to the case. “The Court’s judgment today has fully upheld NGN’s stance,” the statement asserted, adding that permission to make amendments was denied.
The case is scheduled for retrial in January 2025.