Prince Harry ordered to compensate British tabloid R$300,000

Prince Harry lost in court a battle he had been fighting since the beginning of 2022 against the newspaper “Mail on Sunday”. The youngest son of King Charles III was ordered by a British judge, this Monday (11), to pay 48,447 pounds, approximately R$300,200 to the tabloid. He lost a libel case.

According to AFP, among the lawsuits filed by Harry against British newspapers, one of them referred to a report about his police protection when he was in the United Kingdom.

Published in February 2022, the text accused Harry – wrongly, according to his defense – of having “lied” and having “tried to keep secret” his appeal against the government to try to obtain police protection in the country.

After the Duke of Sussex’s action against the Mail on Sunday was rejected on Friday (8), the British justice system ordered, on Monday, that he compensate the newspaper until December 29.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, lost systematic police protection, paid for by British taxpayers, after deciding to leave the royal family in 2020 and move to the United States.

The youngest son of Charles and Lady Diana, who sometimes has to resort to private security paid for with his own resources, had requested that he be able to benefit from police protection when he was in the United Kingdom, but the request was rejected by the courts in May. The prince initiated a second process on the issue, in which he contests the decision.

This appeal against the British Home Office refers specifically to the decision taken by the authorities in February 2020 to grant him police protection in certain cases, not systematically, when he is in the country. Following the three-day hearing last week, the decision is in the deliberation phase.