Prince Philip’s Will Remains Private Despite Legal Challenge

British Royal family news reveals judges have backed the decision to keep Prince Philip’s will private, amidst the calling for greater media to have access to the document.

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The Guardian newspaper contested the decision to seal the Duke of Edinburgh’s will for 90 years, arguing that outside input was not considered.

But judges turned down the claim due to the “exceptional” nature that called for the hearing to be held in private. The practice of sealing royal wills has been a practice for over a century.

The Guardian’s argument depended on the fact that the court hearing in July 2021, which agreed to keep Prince Philip’s will private, took place without any media representatives around to hear the arguments.

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The newspaper group called the practice a “serious interference with open justice” and decided to sue for the right to gain access to the hearing.

But the Court of Appeal rejected the legal challenge, standing by the former decision to keep the hearing private.

The judges said that a “media storm” would have been the result of notifying the press about the hearing and that there was absolutely no need for it to happen.

Why The Judges Refused To Allow “Press Scrutiny”

“These circumstances are, as we have said, exceptional,” said the ruling from Sir Geoffrey Vos and Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lady Justice King.

“We are not sure that there is a specific public interest in knowing how the assets of the Royal Family are distributed.”

The judges did agree that there was legitimate reason behind the public debate over the transparency of the will, but stated that there were certain rules that allowed wills in some cases to be “concealed from the public gaze”.

For years, the Royal Family has filed an application to the president of the Family Division of the High Court to request the sealing of a will, when a senior royal passes away. When the permission is granted, the will is then kept secret from public inspection.

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When the Duke of Edinburgh passed away on April 9, such application was made to the current president of the family division, Sir Andrew McFarlane.

The hearing was held privately in July, with the court coming to a decision in September, agreeing to keep the contents of the will private in order to “truly private aspects of the lives” of senior members of the Royal Family.

The lack of media presence during the ruling prompted the Guardian to launch the legal challenge, calling the secrecy “disproportionate and unjustified”.

To date, there has been more than 30 royal wills held privately by the court. The practice began with Prince Francis of Teck, the younger brother of Queen Mary, who died in 1910.

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