Prince Harry Can't Add Rupert Murdoch, Princess Diana, Meghan Markle Claims in Tabloid Snooping Suit

Prince Harry has not been allowed to amend his upcoming lawsuit against News Group Newspapers with several new allegations, some involving media mogul Rupert Murdoch and others involving his late mother, Princess Diana, and his wife Meghan Markle.

Harry and the more than 40 other plaintiffs involved in the lawsuit filed the potential amendments in March. Among the biggest allegations proposed was that Murdoch, who owns the News Group papers, was aware of criminal activity allegedly taking place at his papers, including phone hacking and other illegal intelligence-gathering techniques. The proposed amendment also prompted similar claims from several senior NGN executives, such as Piers Morgan, who edited the now-defunct News of the World tabloids during the 90s.

But Judge Timothy Fancourt after all ruled that these allegations added “nothing to the allegations already made against other senior executives of NGN and its parent companies” (such as Murdoch's son James and Rebekah Brooks, an editor at the News of the World and the Sun) . He also suggested that plaintiff's lawyers were trying to “shoot at 'trophy' targets, whether political issues or high-profile individuals.” This cannot be an end in itself: it matters to the court only insofar as it is essential and proportionate to the resolution of the individual causes of action.'

Specifically regarding the claims against Murdoch, Fancourt wrote: “While it is no doubt tempting for the plaintiffs' group to try to implicate the man at the top, that will add nothing to the finding that Ms. Brooks and Mr. James Murdoch or other senior executives knew and were involved if that was proven.”

Furthermore, Fancourt he dismissed Harry's advances to expand the scope of the lawsuit to include new allegations of infringement or illegal collection of information related to articles written in 1994 and 1995 about Princess Diana and in 2016 about his developing relationship with Markle. Fancourt said those claims were “not within the scope of the existing claim.”

Despite setbacks like these, Fancourt allowed Harry to add a few more claims to his suit, including claims that the tabloids used his landline. And while Murdoch and Morgan were acquitted of the lawsuit, Fancourt said plaintiffs could bring new charges against additional journalists and private investigators allegedly involved in the spying.

Attorneys for NGN and the plaintiffs did not immediately return calls Rolling rockrequests for comment.

An NGN spokesperson said in a statement to Variety, “NGN argued that some of these were irrelevant to the fair and equitable determination of claims and had nothing to do with seeking compensation for victims of phone hacking or illegal information gathering. The Court, in its decision today, has fully vindicated NGN's position and has not given permission to introduce large and important parts of the amendments.”

NGN's suit is due to go to trial in January 2025. Earlier this year, Harry settled a similar suit with a different tabloid publisher, the Mirror Group newspaper, which a judge found had engaged in illegal information-gathering tactics, including hacking and phone tapping his voicemails.