Prince Harry loses High Court privacy case against Daily Mail publisher

Prince Harry has lost his civil privacy case against the Daily Mail's publisher.

The Duke of Sussex and six other claimants, including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over allegations of unlawful information gathering, such as phone hacking.

In a written judgment issued on Tuesday, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all the claims against ANL, ruling that the claimants failed to prove the allegations of unlawful information gathering.

"The Court rejected the attempt to prove the claims by broad inference where there remained a legitimate and realistic possible lawful source pathway, or where the article-specific evidence did not prove that the relevant information must have been obtained unlawfully," the summary reads. "The claims are therefore dismissed."

Harry, 41, took to the stand during the trial at London's High Court in January. His legal team alleged that 14 articles published by ANL titles between 2001 and 2013 used unlawfully gathered information about him.

He argued that there was "no way" some of the details reported, such as private phone numbers, flight tracking details and travel plans, could have been obtained lawfully.

ANL's representatives, who had strongly denied any wrongdoing, celebrated the verdict in a statement, calling it an "overwhelming victory" and "a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail's journalism".

In addition to Harry, John and Hurley, the claimants were John's husband David Furnish, actress Sadie Frost, campaigner Baroness Lawrence and former politician Sir Simon Hughes.

Harry, who lives in California with his wife and their two children, is in the U.K. this week. He initially announced that he'd accepted an invitation to stay at Buckingham Palace during his visit, but this offer was allegedly "withdrawn at the last moment" on Monday.

He is currently attending the Invictus Games Foundation Conversation: From Policy to Practice event at Chatham House in London this afternoon.