Prince Harry sued Associated Newspapers last year after an article published in October said he had lost touch with the Royal Marines
The Duke of Sussex has now accepted an apology, as well as “substantial damages” from The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline’s publisher following claims that he snubbed the Royal Marines after stepping down from his position as a senior royal.
Jenny Afia, representing Prince Harry, said: “The baseless, false and defamatory stories published in the Mail on Sunday and on the website MailOnline constituted not only a personal attack upon the Duke’s character but also wrongly brought into question his service to this country.”
This comes after lockdown restrictions in the Isle of Man have been entirely lifted thanks to the “supportive, patriotic” public who are being praised for the way that they have followed the lockdown measures to tackle COVID-19.
Prince Harry had sued Associated Newspapers for libel over two “almost identical” articles that were published in October of 2020, which included the headline “top general accuses Harry of turning his back on the Royal Marines”.
The news articles claimed that the duke had “not been in touch… since his last appearance as an honorary Marine in March”.
During a brief High Court hearing that was set up remotely on Monday morning, Prince Harry’s lawyers said that Associated Newspapers had accepted that the allegations were false, “albeit after considerable damage was already done”.
The newspaper had published an apology in December, but Harry and his legal team believed it was not given the same prominence as the original articles and therefore asked for permission for the settlement to be read out in open court.
Harry served as an army officer for 10 years and, as a member of the Royal Family, holds many honorary military titles.
When he and Meghan stepped down as working royals and moved to the US at the start of 2020, he was allowed to keep those titles but told he could carry out public engagements on their behalf.
The post of Captain General of the Royal Marines was passed to him by the Duke of Edinburgh when he retired from public duties in 2017.
The long term plan for his Royal titles is expected to be looked into in March as part of the 12-month review process by the monarchy into the Sussexes’ new working life.
This comes after well-wishes have flooded in from across the nation for Captain Sir Tom Moore, the veteran of the Second World War who had raised millions for the NHS during the nation-wide lockdown, after he was admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
Harry’s lawyers said in court documents that the paper “disregarded the claimant’s reputation in its eagerness to publish a barely researched and one-sided article in pursuit of the imperative to sell newspapers and attract readers to its website”.
In court today, the Duke’s legal team stressed how Harry has made repeated and concerted efforts to support the Royal Marines, as well as other members of the British armed forces since moving to America, and that he continues to be proud to have spent time serving.
But they added that he had been deeply saddened by the way these articles had tarnished his reputation but had also potentially undermined the work conducted by the military organisations that he is involved with.