Prince Harry made secret settlement offer before losing privacy case

Prince Harry reportedly attempted to settle his privacy lawsuit against publisher of the Daily Mail before losing the case.

According to The Telegraph, the Duke of Sussex and six fellow claimants are said to have made several efforts to resolve the dispute with Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, ahead of the trial.

However, the publisher refused to negotiate and instead chose to fight the claims in court.

The lawsuit was filed in 2022 and it accused ANL of unlawfully obtaining private information over a number of years. Prince Harry joined several A-listers including Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost in bringing the case.

But, the High Court dismissed all of the claimants' allegations on July 7, ruling that they had failed to prove the newspaper articles at the center of the case were based on unlawfully gathered information.

Furthermore, the outlet reported that Harry's legal team used "intermediaries" in an attempt to open "backchannel" discussions with ANL before the trial.

They said that ANL had "no intention of settling and was determined to clear its name."

It is pertinent to mention that Prince Harry responded to the ruling by describing it as "a complete and obvious whitewash."