How much could Prince Harry earn from the lawsuit if he wins?

Prince Harry’s devastating lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is likely to net him up to $250,000, a lawyer has said, a fraction of the amounts awarded in some high-profile US celebrity trials. Newsweek.

The Duke of Sussex believes the journalists of the British newspaper Sun and currently non-existent World News broke the law to obtain stories about his private life. Harry is suing publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) in the High Court in London.

A trial is scheduled for January 2025, and lawyers for both sides appeared in court last week after a disagreement over the disclosure of documents and evidence.

Following the hearing, Harry’s team was ordered to pay costs of around £130,000 ($164,000), although lawyers plan to challenge that figure, BBC News reported.

The significant sum highlights how little Harry stands to gain financially from a series of 10 lawsuits he and Meghan have filed, which have yielded mixed results.

However, Mark Stephens of British law firm Howard Kennedy said he did not believe the prince was doing it for the money.

“I think the maximum amount he will receive if he wins (the NGN case) is somewhere in the range of £100,000 to £200,000 (around $125,000 to $250,000),” Stephens said Newsweek.

That may seem small compared to the amounts awarded in high-profile US trials, such as the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation case, which awarded him $15 million and she $2 million. But Stephens said Harry was “in it for the principle” and not the paycheck.

During Friday’s hearing, NGN’s lawyers accused Harry of deliberately removing evidence they believed could help answer a key question in the case.

Harry claims journalists hired private investigators to illegally obtain private information about the prince and his associates, including ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.

The company disputes his accusations but also claims the man was late in filing the lawsuit, even though he should have done so within the six-year statute of limitations for privacy claims.

Some of the stories Harry complained about date back to the 1990s, but the prince claims he could not have realised he had been a victim at the time they were published because the company was covering up its tracks.

NGN’s attorneys say early versions of his book Reserve and messages sent with his ghostwriter JR Moehringer would have provided insight into when Harry first realized he might have been a victim. However, they have been deleted.

Judge Timothy Fancourt ordered Harry to give a witness statement explaining how the messages were deleted and asked for further searches to be carried out.

Stephens, however, said it appeared to be a fishing trip by a press group and said it was “highly unlikely” it would have affected the final outcome of the case “in the absence of direct evidence”.

“That sounds a little far-fetched to me, and I would think for privacy reasons he would delete all the sketches and everything,” Stephens said.

“The thing is, it’s a little bit speculative. There’s no evidence that he actually knew before the date that he gave. It’s kind of like fishing.

“I have a very hard time seeing how that relates to whether illegal methods were used. That’s the difficulty I have here,” Stephens added.

“It seems like it’s some kind of diversion. They either did or didn’t use illegal methods, and when he found out about it, it’s a safeguard of sorts.”

Meanwhile, Harry’s lawyers said in court documents they have seen: Newsweek:“NGN’s tactical and slow approach to disclosure completely undermines the deliberately sensational claim that (Prince Harry) failed to properly discharge his disclosure obligations.

“That is not true. In fact, (Prince Harry) has already made it clear that he has conducted an extensive search, going beyond his obligations.”

Jack Royston is the chief royal correspondent Newsweekbased in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘S Royals Facebook Page.

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