Prince Harry and six other household names are taking the publishers of the Daily Mail newspaper to court over alleged unlawful information gathering dating back 30 years.

The Duke of Sussex and the other claimants, including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, allege Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) hired private detectives to commit a series of unlawful acts between 1993 and 2011.

Harry's showdown in court began on Monday, and he will be on the stand on Tuesday.

Sir Elton, Ms Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence are also expected to give evidence during the nine-week trial at London's High Court, as well as several journalists and editors from ANL, including former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre.

The case began in 2022 and is just one of several Harry has filed against media organisations since 2019 regarding alleged breaches of privacy, unlawful practices and false stories.

Here is everything you need to know.

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What is the case about?

The allegations relate to more than 50 articles written between 1993 and 2011, which the claimants say were obtained through the unlawful gathering of information by the publisher, ranging from tapping their phones and bugging their homes to getting medical records by deception.

Fourteen of those articles relate to Harry - 13 are pictured below and an image for the 14th has not been provided to court.

The alleged unlawful acts include the publisher hiring private investigators (PIs) to secretly place listening devices inside cars and homes and paying police officials for inside information.

When bringing the lawsuit in 2022, lawyers for the claimants said they had become aware of "highly distressing" evidence revealing they had been victims of "abhorrent criminal activity" and "gross breaches of privacy" by ANL.

ANL - which also publishes The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline - denies the allegations, describing them as "preposterous smears", and claims the legal action is "a fishing expedition by [the] claimants and their lawyers".

The publisher also says the claimants in the case had "leaky" social circles which allowed it to gather the information in its articles.

The accusations include:

• The hiring of PIs to secretly place listening devices inside people's cars and homes;

• The commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen to and record people's live, private telephone calls while they were taking place;

• The payment of police officials, with corrupt links to PIs, for inside, sensitive information;

• The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception;

• The accessing of bank accounts, credit histories and financial transactions through illicit means and manipulation.

Who else is involved?

While Prince Harry is one of the key players, as a group litigation, he is not the only claimant.

The others include:

They all allege they have been victims of "abhorrent criminal activity" and "gross breaches of privacy" by ANL.

David Sherborne is the lawyer representing all the claimants. The seasoned attorney represented Hollywood actor Johnny Depp in his UK libel case against the publisher of The Sun newspaper in 2020, and Coleen Rooney during the high-profile "Wagatha Christie" trial, brought by Rebekah Vardy, in 2022.

Harry's late mother Princess Diana, Hollywood actor Michael Douglas and model Kate Moss are also among his previous clients.

What has happened so far?

Proceedings began on Monday 19 January and are set to last a total of nine weeks.

You can keep up with the latest updates via Sky News' live blog. Here's a recap of what's happened so far:

Day one

With Harry seated behind him, Mr Sherborne gave the first opening statement, telling the court that ANL had overseen a "clear, systematic and sustained" use of unlawful information gathering.

He said they "knew they had skeletons in their closet" when they emphatically denied all claims of unlawful practices.

He described ANL's denials as a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil defence" and claimed the publishers had "stuck to their story" in repeatedly denying claims of unlawful information gathering and have "aggressively" repeated these denials.

He gave details of PIs, including one who says ANL staff knew information he gathered was obtained unlawfully and that they were his "best customers" for up to two years following his conviction for accessing information illegally.

He highlighted how Baroness Doreen Lawrence felt "bitterly let down" by the Daily Mail over its alleged use of unlawful information-gathering following the 1993 murder of her son, Stephen Lawrence.

The court was also told that a Mail on Sunday journalist allegedly accessed medical information on actress Sadie Frost, about an ectopic pregnancy, through unlawful means.

Day two

Mr Sherborne delivered the rest of his opening argument, taking the court through the allegations made by Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley and Sir Simon Hughes.

On Harry's claim, Sherborne said the duke had experienced "distress" and "paranoia" caused by alleged unlawful information gathering and that the duke had "endured a sustained campaign of attacks against him" for having the temerity "to stand up to Associated in the way that he has so publicly done".

He said the articles which are the subject of Harry's claims focused "primarily and in a highly intrusive and damaging way, on the relationships which he formed, or rather tried to form, during those years prior to meeting his now wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.

Anthony White KC then laid out the defence for ANL, saying Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists provide a "compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles".

He said the claimants' arguments about payments to PIs were "examples of clutching at straws in the wind". They have accused ANL of spending more than £3m on PIs.

He told the court that ANL is "not a corner shop" and that it is audited - and "auditors usually do not miss the haemorrhaging of large amounts of cash of this size".

He went on to mention one private investigator named in the case - Gavin Burrows - who, according to a 2021 statement, allegedly claimed to have hacked voicemails, tapped landlines, and accessed financial and medical information at the request of a journalist at the Mail on Sunday.

But the High Court heard that Mr Burrows later claimed his signature on the statement was forged.

Mr White said that the witness statement had "provided the only direct evidence of the most serious allegations of unlawful information gathering" and that the claims of Hurley, Sir Elton and Furnish in particular relied "heavily on the allegations made".

As well as denying wrongdoing, Mr White argued the claims have been brought too late as they fall outside the statute of limitations - a law indicating privacy claims should be brought within six years. The claimants should have known, or could have found out, if they had a potential case before October 2016 - six years before launching proceedings in October 2022 - he argued.

What happened in Harry's previous cases?

The prince had another lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN), which publishes The Sun, conclude last year. The duke made similar accusations about NGN, which involved unlawful information gathering by journalists and private investigators.

Before an up-to 10-week trial began, it was announced both sides had "reached an agreement" and that NGN had offered an apology to Harry and would pay "substantial damages".

The settlement was reported to be worth more than £10m, mostly in legal fees.

Another of Harry's legal cases, this time against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over accusations of historical phone hacking, did go to trial.

The trial saw Harry take to the witness box, making him the first senior royal to give evidence in a courtroom since the 19th century.

In December 2023, the Honourable Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that the duke's phone had been hacked "to a modest extent" between 2003 and 2009, and 15 of 33 articles he complained about were the product of unlawful techniques.

He was awarded £140,600 in damages. During a further hearing in February 2024 a settlement was reached between Harry and MGN over the remaining parts of his claim.

(c) Sky News 2026: Why Prince Harry and six other household names are suing one of Britain's biggest media groups