Prince Harry and several other major British celebrities filed a new lawsuit against the Daily Mail, the Duke of Sussex’s lawyer announced on Thursday.
Harry was joined by singer Elton John, John’s husband David Furnish and actress Elizabeth Hurley, among others. The group is suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online.
“These individuals have become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers,” the London-based law firm Hamlins said in a press release.
The group accused the Daily Mail and its fellow papers of hiring private investigators to place listening devices in people’s cars and homes, commissioning individuals to listen in on and record phone calls, paying police officers for sensitive information, impersonating individuals to obtain medical information and accessing private financial information through “illicit means and manipulation.”
Hamlins said the group of public figures believes these accusations “represent the tip of the iceberg” and many more “remain unknowing victims of similar terrible and reprehensible covert acts.”
A spokesperson for Associated Newspapers said the company “utterly and unambiguously” refutes the accusations.
“These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims — based on no credible evidence — appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Prince Harry previously filed a libel lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, which his spokesperson confirmed in February. His wife, Meghan Markle, won a lawsuit against the Daily Mail in 2021 over its printing of a letter she wrote to her estranged father.