On Friday, Prince Harry won his phone hacking lawsuit against one of the top British tabloids, receiving a £140,000 award. Following this win, his other legal battles with the tabloid are set to proceed to trial. High Court Justice Timothy Fancourt, during the proceedings, discovered evidence which led widespread and long-standing phone hacking practices at the newspaper. Justice said that executives at the agency were aware of such practices, and they tried to cover it up. Fancourt determined that out of the 33 newspaper articles monitored during the trial out of which 15 had been created with the assistance of illegal methods.
Prince Harry sought £440,000 ($560,000) in his legal battle against the British media, breaking with his family's tradition of avoiding lawsuits. He became the first senior royal in over a century to testify in court. In June, Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, made headlines by testifying for two days in court. He blamed newspapers journalists who listened in on voicemails and hiring private investigators to gather information about him and his family through deceptive and unlawful methods. In the High Court, he confidently stated, "I believe that phone hacking was at an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time. That is beyond any doubt."