BREAKING NEWS: The Dragon Prevails

Prince Harry's $1.1 Million trial balloon against the Daily Mail blows up in his face

Hello Dear Readers!

Happy Saturday! This is the third newsletter this week. I don’t believe I’ve written this much since the Coronation, but as there’s been so much breaking news in the past 10 days it necessitates multiple sips of Royal Tea a week! I hope you’ve all enjoyed the uptick in newsletters as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. To my new subscribers, welcome! To my existing subscribers, welcome back! Today, we’re going to be discussing the news that Prince Harry, self-described Dragon Slayer, has ducked a duel he began with the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday and faces a huge legal bill as a consequence.

Before I begin, I want to let it be known I’m loathe to be known as someone who “harps” on Harry, I aim to provide readers with consolidated information you’ve likely not seen broken down clearly in the press. And I try to be fair. Just last week I wrote about how people needed to let Harry be about his new award. If you missed it, please read the post below. It’s a free post open to all readers.

This isn’t a website to grouse that Meghan Markle cupped her pregnant belly too much and it annoys me. Neither is it to foaming at the mouth, screaming because Harry doesn’t “deserve” a celebrity award. I base my observations and thoughts on the public record, released statements straight from the mouths of the subjects, court documents and stories from credible sources. In this instance, we’re going straight to the horse’s mouth.

The Duke of Sussex’s lawyers announced yesterday that he was abandoning his legal case against the Mail on Sunday, leaving him with a potential legal bill of £750,000 (~$1 million). Harry had sued the paper for libel over an article relating to his demands for automatic tax-payer funded security when he visits Britain, which he claimed was “an attack on his honesty and integrity”.

He now has to pay his own legal costs (conservative estimates put it at around £500,000) and the Mail on Sunday’s £250,000 legal bill they accrued defending themselves. And those are just the tangibles. If you’re Harry, how do you measure suffering acute embarrassment after having had to discontinue the claim you brought on? The decision came mere hours before the deadline for Harry to disclose documents linked to the case, including many of which may have been damaging to his own claim. Last month, a High Court judge ruled the Mail on Sunday has a “real prospect” of showing Harry issued a “misleading description” of the issues in his legal action against the Home Office over his security entitlement. So Harry metaphorically laying down his dragon-slaying sword was understandable from a legal standpoint. But Dear Readers, I was still surprised at the turn of events.

It was only just four weeks ago Harry released a grandiloquent statement extolling the virtues and importance of fighting the good fight:

“I was told slaying dragons would get you burned [but] doing what is needed for a free and honest press is a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”

Methinks the “mission” ran out of runway and the dragon in this particular case was less Falcor and more Smaug. There’s quite a lot of information to sort through, so let’s unpack this legal rigamarole. And I’ll also give my thoughts as to why losing this case spells good news for Harry, bad news for his long-term credibility and why it likely has Buckingham Palace aides saying “I told you so”.

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The Beginning

Unbeknownst to the public, Prince Harry had been waging a war with the UK Government on its decision back in March 2020 to deny him tax-payer funded automatic security. The crux of the argument was he felt “unsafe” to return to the UK with his family without 24/7 Royal Protection Officers/Security. Kate Mansey, the journalist at the Mail on Sunday who broke the story on January 16th detailed the pre-action motion Harry’s lawyers had drafted: