Prince Harry will discover next Tuesday whether he has prevailed in his landmark privacy battle against the publisher of the Daily Mail, with the verdict set to land while he is expected to be on British soil.
Justice Matthew Nicklin is due to deliver his ruling on July 7 following a 10-week trial at the High Court that commenced in January.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are anticipated to be visiting the UK with their children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, during the judgment.
The 41-year-old prince is among seven prominent figures pursuing legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited over claims of systematic illegal intrusion into their private lives.
Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish have joined the lawsuit, alongside actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, the latter being Jude Law's former wife.
Doreen Lawrence, the renowned campaigner, and Simon Hughes, a former Member of Parliament, complete the group of claimants.
ANL, which publishes both the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, has vigorously contested the accusations, insisting that all its journalism was obtained through legitimate means.
The claimants allege that dozens of articles published between the 1990s and 2011 relied on unlawfully obtained material.
Private investigators working on behalf of journalists allegedly engaged in hacking mobile phone messages, intercepting landline calls, and extracting confidential information through deception.
This practice of "blagging" reportedly extended to acquiring sensitive data including medical records by tricking individuals into divulging private details.
Senior executives at The Mail titles acknowledged during proceedings that some minor data protection violations may have occurred, such as acquiring ex-directory telephone numbers.
However, they maintained that the newspapers prohibited the use of private investigators from 2007 onwards.
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The financial consequences for whichever party loses are substantial, with lawyers on both sides estimating that costs could amount to tens of millions of pounds.
Beyond the monetary burden, defeat would carry significant reputational implications for either the duke and his fellow claimants or for publications that rank among the most widely read in the English-speaking world.
When Prince Harry testified in January, he spoke candidly about the personal cost of pursuing the litigation.
"They have made my wife's life an absolute misery," he told the court, adding that media coverage had "only got worse, not better" throughout the legal proceedings.
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