(RoyalPatriot.com )- Several prominent celebrities along with other individuals have taken legal action against the publisher of the UK Daily Mail, Associated Newspapers, alleging violations of their privacy, including placing listening devices in their homes and bugging their phones.
The litigants include singer Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Prince Harry Duke of Sussex, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, and Doreen Lawrence, the mother of a black teen murdered in a 1993 racist attack.
According to a statement from the law firm Hamlins, the complainants became aware of “highly distressing” evidence indicating that their privacy had been breached by Associated Newspapers. These privacy breaches included placing listening devices inside homes and vehicles, commissioning to have private telephones bugged, paying police for sensitive information, and impersonating individuals to obtain medical records.
Hamlins is representing Prince Harry and Sadie Frost in the lawsuit while the law firm GunnerCooke is representing Elizabeth Hurley, Elton John, and David Furnish.
A spokesman for Associated Newspapers “utterly and unambiguously” denied the allegations in the suit, calling them “preposterous smears” and “unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims.” The spokesman said the allegations are being used as a “pre-planned and orchestrated attempt” to drag the Daily Mail into a “phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old.”
This isn’t the only lawsuit Prince Harry has brought against Associated Newspapers.
The Duke of Sussex is currently suing the Sunday Mail for libel over an article that claimed he attempted to keep secret the details of his legal fight to reinstate his police protection.
Last year, the Sunday Mail had to pay damages in another lawsuit brought by the wayward prince, this time over a report that claimed Harry turned his back on the Royal Marines.
His domineering wife Meghan Markle also won a privacy case against Associated Newspapers last December after the Mail published a personal letter she had written to her estranged father.
