David Furnish, the spouse of British musician Elton John, testified in London’s High Court that the Daily Mail publisher had illegally acquired information about them, including details allegedly stolen from their acquaintance, Prince Harry. Furnish, a Canadian producer involved in a lawsuit alongside John and five others against Associated Newspapers, accused the Mail titles of being discriminatory towards their relationship. Associated Newspapers has refuted the claims of phone hacking and other illicit activities by Furnish, John, and their co-claimants, asserting that the information they reported was either already public knowledge or sourced legitimately.
During the proceedings, Furnish contended that the specifics in the Mail articles went beyond information available through media, John’s website, or statements from his spokesperson, as suggested by the publisher’s lawyer, Catrin Evans. Furnish, speaking via video link, emphasized the distinctiveness of the details in the stories.
Furnish became the sixth claimant to present evidence in the high-profile case, following testimonies from Prince Harry, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, former lawmaker Simon Hughes, and anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence. Elton John is scheduled to provide his testimony on the following day.
The lawsuit filed by Furnish and John concerns ten articles published between 2002 and 2015, including a 2007 piece in the Mail on Sunday about a memorial concert for Princess Diana. Prince Harry mentioned in his statement that he believed he and John may have exchanged voicemails regarding the concert. The Mail’s legal team, however, contends that the information was obtained from reliable royal sources.
Furnish, in his written testimony, alleged that their home’s landlines had been tapped, implicating the Mail in the unauthorized acquisition of information through their connections with Elizabeth Hurley and Prince Harry. He expressed Elton John’s admiration for Prince Harry and criticized the Mail for publishing critical and close-minded stories about them. Furnish highlighted an incident involving the premature access to their son’s birth certificate by the Mail, labeling it as distressing.
The ongoing legal battle between the claimants and Associated Newspapers has sparked discussions on privacy violations and journalistic ethics. In a separate lawsuit in 2025, Prince Harry settled with Rupert Murdoch’s News Groups Newspapers, receiving damages and an apology for intrusive reporting by The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.
This development underscores the growing scrutiny on media practices and the protection of individuals’ privacy in the digital age.