David Furnish, the spouse of British musician Elton John, testified in London’s High Court that the Daily Mail publisher had unlawfully acquired information about them, including details he claimed were taken from their friend, Prince Harry. Furnish, a Canadian producer, is among seven claimants suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, for alleged breaches of privacy. In his witness statement, Furnish also accused the Mail titles of being “actively prejudiced” towards their relationship.
Associated Newspapers refuted the allegations of phone hacking and other illegal actions brought forward by Furnish, John, and the other claimants. The publisher argued that the information reported in their newspapers was either already public knowledge or obtained from legitimate sources. The publisher’s legal representative, Catrin Evans, suggested that the information in the articles that Furnish and John contested might have originated from other media outlets, John’s website, or statements from his spokesperson.
During his testimony via video link, Furnish emphasized that the details in the Mail articles were significantly more specific. He became the sixth claimant to provide evidence in the high-profile lawsuit, 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 testify on Friday.
The case brought by Furnish and John revolves around ten articles published between 2002 and 2015. One of the articles in question was a 2007 story in the Mail on Sunday concerning a concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, Harry’s mother, who passed away in a car accident in 1997. Harry mentioned in his statement that he believed he and John might have left voicemail messages about the concert. However, the Mail’s legal team claimed that the information was sourced from well-connected royal informants.
Furnish stated in his written testimony that he and John suspected their home’s landlines had been tapped and accused the Mail of being complicit in “the theft of our information through our connections with Elizabeth Hurley and Prince Harry.” He expressed Elton’s admiration for Prince Harry and criticized the Mail for publishing “critical and close-minded narratives about us.”
In reference to a 2010 article about their surrogacy journey, Furnish revealed that the Mail obtained a copy of their son’s birth certificate before they did, describing the incident as “deeply troubling.” He condemned the Mail for leveraging their friendships to access information and violating their family’s privacy by stealing personal documents.
In a separate legal development in 2025, Prince Harry settled a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Groups Newspapers, receiving undisclosed damages and an apology for the invasion of his privacy through unlawful means at The Sun tabloid and the now-defunct News of the World.
