Prince Harry's eye-watering legal bill revealed ahead of UK return - but the final total could be far higher

Prince Harry will have to pay a share of a steep court bill within a week, a High Court judge ruled on Friday. 

The Duke of Sussex, 41, lost a high-profile privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, in July, while he was visiting the UK in July. 

Together with a group of claimants, who include Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Harry will need to cover the paper's legal costs, which include an initial £9,544,355 to be paid by 28 August.  

However, the court is yet to decide how much of Associated's costs the claimants must ultimately pay, and there will be further hearings to determine the total sum. The group also includes David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Sir Simon Hughes. 

Mr Justice Nicklin said: "The claimants and their advisers have been on notice, since the hearing, that this would be the date for payment on account." He added he was "quite satisfied" that an order for indemnity costs, which are more favourable to the publisher, "should be made in this case". 

Associated previously stated its costs defending the proceedings were £34.5 million, which the court described as "exceptionally high". 

However, the court declined to impose a cap on the amount that they could recover following "careful consideration". 

Harry was told last month that he would need to wait to find out how much he would be paying. 

Why are Prince Harry's court costs so high?

Mr Justice Nicklin said that the legal team's behaviour during the case was "unreasonable to a high degree".

The judge also said that a statement issued on behalf of Prince Harry and Baroness Lawrence in July after the judgment - which called the ruling a "whitewash" - was "regrettable". 

However, this was not part of the decision for indemnity costs as it was only issued by two of the seven claimants. 

The judge said in the 44-page ruling that he was granting costs on this stricter basis for several reasons, including "the speculative and substantially inferential character of the claims at their origin", the "exceptional breadth" of the cases "and the public presentation of allegations of serious criminality and impropriety which were not ultimately established".

He continued that the group are criticised for "the making and maintenance of very serious allegations against many individuals, the failure to reassess those allegations when the evidence required reassessment, and the continued pursuit of allegations which were unsupported or had ceased to be realistically maintainable".

"In my judgment, that conduct was unreasonable to a high degree," Mr Justice Nicklin added, later describing the claims as "litigation conceived and pleaded on an unjustifiably wide canvas".

Prince Harry's court case explained

The Duke of Sussex was part of a group of high-profile claimants who claimed alleged unlawful information gathering by Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers. 

The claims were dismissed following an 11-week trial, with judge Mr Justice Nicklin concluding in his 436-page ruling that none of the group of seven had proven the allegations of unlawful information gathering. 

The judge said that he accepted the evidence given by Prince Harry at the trial in January, but concluded: "As with each of the claimants, Prince Harry has limited evidence to give on the contentious matters in dispute."

A spokesperson for the publisher said the decision was “another overwhelming victory for the Mail and its journalism”.

ANL, which also publishes the Mail On Sunday, had asked for more than £9.9 million as an interim payment, while lawyers for the claimants said the interim payment should be just over £7.9 million.

Prince Harry's move back to the UK with Meghan

The judgment comes after it was made public on Wednesday that Harry and his wife the Duchess of Sussex are moving back to the UK.

The couple decamped to California more than six years ago amid the Megxit crisis, but will relocate back to the UK later this month to live in a non-royal residence outside London.

Their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, have been enrolled in British schools. 

Meanwhile, other members of the royal family, including the King and Queen and Prince and Princess of Wales, have arrived in Balmoral to begin their summer stay in Scotland.