Prince Harry’s Phone Hacking Lawsuits Have a Major Connection to Vacationing in the South of France With Elton John
Prince Harry’s phone hacking lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers has seen various memories from his past dissected along with new details. One of the latest: how the Duke of Sussex first got in touch with lawyers to pursue legal action. Harry shared in court he “bumped into” his now-lawyer while vacationing with Elton John.
Harry met his lawyer during a vacation in France with Elton John
During his days-long witness testimony, Harry, 38, explained how he’d come to meet his lawyer, David Sherborne. Not in, say, an office in London, England, or even Frogmore Cottage, his former U.K. home.
Rather, Harry “bumped into” Sherborne while he, Meghan Markle, and their now-4-year-old son, Prince Archie, were staying with John and his husband, David Furnish, in the South of France.
“When did you first go to solicitors to seek advice about a possible claim against MGN?” Andrew Green, a lawyer for the U.K. media organization, asked (via BBC).
“I didn’t go to them. I bumped into Mr. Sherborne in France … it’s in my book,” Harry replied, referencing his Spare memoir.
The Spare passage mentioning the trip — on pages 367 to 369 of the U.S. edition — wasn’t entered in court records. Although Harry did say he remembered the introduction happening in 2018 or thereabouts.
“So prior to bumping into Mr. Sherborne in France, you hadn’t sought advice from lawyers about whether you had a claim against the Mirror Group?” Green asked.
“No. Nothing at all,” Harry replied. The father of two added he’d “never” been “shown anything.” It was “all contained within the palace. And even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be allowed to make a claim,” he said.
What Harry said in ‘Spare’ about meeting a ‘lovely fellow’ who ‘knew more about the ‘phone-hacking scandal’
Discussing his and the Duchess of Sussex’s decision to take legal action against British tabloids in 2019, Harry recalled how he met a lawyer, believed to be Sherborne, in the South of France.
He, Meghan, and Archie stayed with John and his husband, David Furnish, as well as their children, at the couple’s vacation home in France.
According to Spare, ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer, the trip took place in the summer of 2019. And, as Harry explained, pursuing tabloids legally had something to do with John and Furnish.
“It was partially down to Elton and David,” Harry said in Spare. “At the end of our recent visit they’d introduced us to a barrister. An acquaintance of theirs, a lovely fellow who knew more about the phone-hacking scandal than anyone I’d ever met.”
“He’d shared with me his expertise, plus loads of open-court evidence,” Harry continued before recalling the point in their conversation, which almost left him speechless.
“When I told him I wished there was something I could do with it, when I complained that we’d been blocked at every turn by the Palace, he offered a breathtakingly elegant work-around: ‘Why not hire your own lawyer?'”
Harry recalled he’d “stammered” at the question. “You mean … are you telling me we could just …?”
“What a thought,” Harry wrote, noting it “never occurred” to him because he’d “been so conditioned to do as I was told.”
Elton John’s part of another Prince Harry lawsuit involving the British media
Aside from the connection to Harry’s MGN phone hacking lawsuit by way of the duke’s lawyer is another legal link to the “Rocket Man” singer.
Like Harry, John is among the celebrity claimants alleging Associated Newspapers Ltd, which publishes the U.K.’s Daily Mail and others, used illegal information-gathering techniques.
The case saw Harry make a surprise appearance at a London court hearing in March 2023.
Harry’s phone hacking lawsuit against MGN is ongoing.
