Prince Harry’s £50m blunder - the true cost of his court defeat | The Daily T

The £50 million question facing Prince Harry.

How much of that giant legal bill is he going to have to pay?

This has not been a good holiday for him.He's come to Blighty.He's been snubbed by his father.He's had no palace to stay in.He's now lost a court case.He's facing his share in a £50 million bill.

He's going to have to go back to Meghan.and explain all this.The best way to look at the Duke of Sussex versus the male, male on Sunday and male on nine, in numbers, is as follows.I'm just going to hit you with a few figures because I know sometimes when listening or watching things where lots of figures are bandied around it's a bit difficult.This illustrates where we're at with this.And by the way, I did a law degree and it's figures like this that make me question why on earth I went into journalism.

Because my goodness me, that some people have made an absolute mint from this absolute farrago.First figure, 350 to five grand in pounds per hour.The various prices we think the claimants have been charged for legal advice.

Wow.

And indeed associated.employed Grade A solicitors who charged £740 an hour.

Wow.

Nice work if you can get it.£18 .7 million, the combined total of the claimants' proposed budget.£19 .8 million, that was Associated Newspapers' proposed budget.£4 .1 million, that was the amount the judges ruled the claimants could spend.£4 .5 million, that was the amount the judges ruled that Associated Newspapers could spend.£216 ,669.

The claimant's proposed budget for settlement negotiations, £0.Associated's proposed budget to agree a settlement.Now, I say that about settlement because we have reported that Harrywas minded to try and settle this case out of court in the last few weeks to avoid the judgment that was handed down.

Can you explain to me, as a lawyer...I'm not a lawyer, I've only got a law degree.Can you explain to me, Perry Mason, why are those figures so big?What are you paying for when you pay 19 .8 million pounds?

I mean, it's the market cost, right?For top media lawyers, that's what you'd expect to pay.And that's both in preparation of paperwork and in appearing in court.David Sherborne, who represented the claimants, I mean, it's kind of like Kim Kardashian's dad's territory.Alan Dershowitz would be the American equivalent.These are people that represent celebrities.

They're going to be cashing in.

Are you paying for the name?

You're paying for the name.You're paying for the sophistication of their case.Right.Well, you know, you're not going to go down to the local high street and pluck a convencer.

But why not?I would.

Well, I know.But, you know, look at people who get people to handle their divorces.Right.You know, why is Mish Gonderaya, the law firm, renowned for fighting a good fight when it comes to divorces?Why?Because, you know, Fiona Shackleton represented Paul McCartney and Anthony Julius.

I believe represented Princess Diana, right?So these are big legal names.And if you're a big legal name, then you charge big legal prices.

Right.Because I've seen My Cousin Vinny.

Yeah, me too.Love that film.

And it looks quite easy to do.Yeah, I know.

Joe Pesci, right?And Melissa Tomei, which is a great film back in the 90s.OK, that looks easy.I think this is a bit more complex.But what's important here is to try and get a handle on how much of the bill Harry might need to saddle, right?Because at the end of the day, the sum 50 million keeps on being bandied around, and I spoke to our head of legal, and that was kind of confirmed in court that that was the ballpark of how much this had all cost.

And we already know it's cost millions.What's interesting about this so -called battle, this virtuous battle against the press, is how much funding has actually come from the estate of Max Moseley.

Right.

So Max Moseley, son of Sir Oswald, renowned in his day neo -Nazi, would you say?

What a bad thing in and of itself.OK.Sins of the father, et cetera.

Et cetera.But famously, Moseley, now deceased, was caught in a News of the World sting.being whipped and things by leather -clad prostitutes.

Again, not a bad thing in and of itself.But it was mischaracterized by the newspaper as a Nazi orgy.And he won a case saying it was not a Nazi orgy.

It was just a plain, good old -fashioned orgy.

Yes, it involved leather.It was a political orgy.

Maybe some people looked a little bit like Heflick from A Low, A Low, as we mentioned earlier.

I'm going to be very careful what you say.

We can no longer defame the dead.Leather -clad prostitutes and Max Mosley, okay, just park that.Similarly, we know that figures like Hugh Grant supported hacked off because they were hacked off, that stories emerged.For instance, in Grant's case of him and Divine Brown, the prostitute, appearing in Flagrante Delicto on the Hollywood Boulevard back in the day.We all remember the mugshot didn't exactly look like the stills from Four Weddings and a Funeral.

It was the Kennedy assassination of its time.We can all remember where we were when Hugh was caught.

So I wrote a piece about this in the week.They claimed it was about virtue.A lot of this was about vengeance.A lot of these claimants literally wanted, like the News of the World, the Daily Mail to be closed down.

Yeah.

Because it's irreverent, because it's right wing, and because it has been run for many, many years by Paul Dacre, who is, let's be honest, the bête noire of pretty much anyone in show business.Let's hear what he had to say about Mosley and his fortune funding this case.

Financed by the orgy -loving racist Max Mosley, and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson 2 and impose statutory regulation on the press, which even now is rearing its ugly head in Labour's media green paper.

So basically, now that Associated Newspapers have won, they're likely to recoup about 75 % of their costs.Yes.That has to come from the other side.OK, so that's costly for Prince Harry and co.It's also interesting to note that The money involved in the case has gone up and up and up.And in January of last year, the judge in the case, Mr Justice Nicklin, and another judge called David Cook, had, quotes, little difficulty concluding that such sums were manifestly excessive and therefore disproportionate.

This has cost Prince Harry a lot, right?Reputationally a great deal.But actually, I think some of these claimants have paid through the nose to lose a case.On 97 different counts, Tim.

Yeah, yeah.And of course he would say that he's standing up for truth and justice here, that he was misrepresented and he wanted to strike a blow for decent standards in the media.

Well sure, but his statement in response...

And therefore it's worth the money.

I know, but can I just say his statement in response...court judgment, it's a whitewash.

It's laughably preposterous.I just keep coming back to the exorbitant cost because it seems like these celebrity trials are a bit like blockbuster Hollywood movies and presidential elections.There's no rhyme or reason to the amounts spent.The amounts are spent in order to spend the amounts so that you can say it's a big trial, it's a big movie, it's an important election.But there is something about it which actually makes one feel physically sick.I mean, I don't want to, you know, like, one's mother always used to say at dinner, there are people starving in the world when you pushed your peas around the plate.

But there is something to this, isn't there?Yes.Harry is the head of charities, which are doing excellent work helping people in very deprived parts of the world.And here, vast amounts of money are being spent in order to bring down the mail.No.There's something to see.

But then he would argue, to be fair, he would argue, I'm doing this as this kind of David and Goliath, although if you've got Mosley's millions and you've got Sir Elton John and others in your stable.

It's David with a massive golden slingshot, isn't it?

Exactly, but he was saying I'm trying to do this so that the little people don't get turned over by newspapers like the Mail and indeed other tabloids.The question now is, I wonder how much of this bill he's actually going to foot?Is Uncle Elton, who I assume has got considerably more money than Harry and Meghan, is he going to step in and cover everyone?I mean, Baroness Lawrence is obviously not a multi -millionaire, nowhere near it, so one assumes that she's not going to be held personally liable for any of these costs, because why would you when you've got other much more wealthy people in the claim?Liz Hurley, again, not short of a few bob.It's just going to be interesting to know how this is all going to be divided up and how it now affects Harry and Meghan's output, because they've been dumped by most of the people

that they had done deals with, including Netflix, et cetera.That's why they've had to launch that brand as ever.That's why she's out flogging jam and all the rest of it.

Well, you make it sound like she's standing by the side of the road with a sign that says, jam, one pound a jar.It's only a matter of time.

If you go down that road, you know, Santa Barbara to Wouldn't this encourage them to stay away from the UK?

I mean, isn't this the last roll of the dice?I mean, they've tried to correct the record, they've failed.Isn't it better now just to accept that you've been, once the court system has passed a verdict, because what this verdict sort of says is you're wrong about everything.What it says is people have been really rude about you.That's true.But none of it was illegal.

No.

And isn't that their argument against...

Also, we've got revelations by the way.

Isn't that their rage against the human race as they believe that something really unjust was done to them?Yes.And this seems to quite definitively say...No, I know.No, it wasn't.

And also, by the way, I just... to be a fly on the wall in Montecito when Harry heads home, because there is this extraordinary story involving the male journalist Charlotte Griffiths.And she has laid bare the WhatsApp messages that she exchanged with Harry back in the day where he claimed never to fraternise with journalists.And then she's made this claim about him putting a white pill on her tongue at a party.Could have been a tick tock.I mean, it could have been.How many times have I put a white pill mint in your mouth.

Yeah, get the message.I get the message.

No, but so this is all and this is the thing.Now, just for the dynamic of the marriage, I just want to make this point.

Yeah.

The Duchess of Sussex wasn't particularly in favour of all this.She didn't accompany him to any of these court cases.Right.And now the whole thing's blown up in his face.So he's had a horrible time here.This has not been a good time.

for him.He's come to Blighty.He's been snubbed by his father.He's had no palace to stay in.He's now lost a court case.He's facing his share in a £50 million bill.

He's going to have to go back to Meghan and explain all this.So at this point, okay, this might surprise you.I'm starting to feel a modicum of sympathy for them.

Oh, really?Right, OK.Well, you should do a whip round around the office.Should we?Raise a few pennies.I think the basic rule in life is never sue.

I'm sure people have said that to you many times.They've said it to me as well.

Many times.

Just don't sue.

Just never do.

And partly, aside from the cost, which we've discussed, it's also what you raised there about other things then come out.Because people defend themselves, and by so doing, they then call your character even more into question.So whatever you were upset about someone calling you 10 years ago, if you sue, worse is going to be put into the public domain.It's never worth doing.Once people finally figure out that they're not going to get a rise out of you, they will stop.It's like being in the playground.

If bullies realise that you're not going to cry, they will move on to someone else.They move on to somebody who might.

Now, just on the weakest link, I've got three maths questions.I'm just going to tell you that.I don't think that's a spoiler.Right.I'm not going to tell you how I answered them.But can you even begin to imagine how somebody as functionally innumerate as me coped with doing mental arithmetic?

Live on, well not live, but on recorded TV.On recorded TV, under time pressure.Yes.

It was horrific.And you and I had a similarly uncomfortable experience earlier this week when we brought the former Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, into the studio to explain Burnham Monmouth.

Bernanomics.

Thank you so much.And that is going to be our podcast tomorrow.So if you're wondering whether our Andy is actually going to bankrupt us.brace yourself, because we will reveal the answer to that question at 5pm tomorrow.