While Prince Harry was back in London this week facing a tense legal showdown with the British tabloid media, Meghan Markle struck a much calmer tone from California.
Per People, the Duchess of Sussex recently shared glimpses of what she called “carefree days,” posting laid-back photos that felt worlds apart from her husband’s serious presence at the Royal Courts of Justice.
As Meghan stayed back in the U.S. with their children, Harry returned to a legal battle he’s described as both deeply personal and long overdue.
The Duke of Sussex appeared at London’s High Court on Monday morning, January 19, kicking off what’s expected to be a nine-week trial against Associated Newspapers Limited, the publisher behind the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. Ahead of the hearing, a spokesperson for Prince Harry told NBC News that he was feeling “confident and ready” as the case got underway.
The lawsuit brings together seven well-known claimants, including Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley, and Sadie Frost. They allege the publisher relied on illegal tactics—ranging from phone hacking and deception to hiring private investigators—to access personal information from the 1990s through the early 2010s.
Associated Newspapers has strongly denied the claims, branding them “preposterous and without foundation.”
During opening statements, the claimants’ lawyer, David Sherborne, argued there was “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” across several of the company’s publications.
He also alleged the publisher presented itself publicly as “a clean ship” while privately knowing otherwise, adding that there were “skeletons in their closet.”
The company has pushed back on that portrayal. In an earlier statement cited ahead of the trial, Associated Newspapers said the lawsuit was “an affront to the hard-working journalists whose reputations and integrity, as well as those of Associated itself, are wrongly traduced.”
Prince Harry made his way into the courthouse through a side entrance, dressed in a navy suit and wearing a solemn look before briefly smiling and waving at the reporters gathered outside.
His upcoming turn in the witness box will be only the second time he has personally taken the stand in court—a rare step for a senior royal and one that previously broke with long-standing convention.
The Duke has repeatedly tied his fight against the tabloids to the death of his mother, Princess Diana, as well as what he’s described as nonstop media harassment of Meghan after their relationship went public.
