David Furnish, the husband of British music icon Elton John, has accused the publisher of the Daily Mail of unlawfully obtaining private information about their

family and of treating the couple in a homophobic manner, as he gave evidence at London’s High Court on Thursday.

Furnish is one of seven high-profile claimants suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, over alleged breaches of privacy. In a written witness statement, he claimed the newspaper group had engaged in intrusive and illegal practices, including phone hacking and the misuse of personal information sourced through close friends such as Prince Harry.

Associated Newspapers strongly denies the allegations. The publisher says it did not engage in phone hacking or other unlawful behaviour and argues that the information used in its reporting was either already in the public domain or obtained from legitimate sources.

During cross-examination, the publisher’s lawyer, Catrin Evans, suggested that many of the details in the disputed articles came from other media outlets, Elton John’s official website, or statements made by the singer’s spokesperson. Furnish, however, rejected that explanation, telling the court that the Mail’s reporting contained far more specific information than could reasonably have been sourced publicly.

Furnish is the sixth claimant to give evidence in the closely watched case, which has already heard testimony from Prince Harry, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, and anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence. Elton John himself is expected to take the stand on Friday.

The case brought by Furnish and John focuses on 10 articles published between 2002 and 2015. One of the most prominent was a 2007 Mail on Sunday report about a concert marking the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. Harry, in his own witness statement, said he believed he and John would have exchanged voicemail messages about the event — a claim the Mail disputes, saying its information came from well-placed royal sources.

In his evidence, Furnish said he and John suspected their home landlines had been bugged and accused the Mail of “stealing our information through our friends Elizabeth Hurley and Prince Harry.” He also described what he called a long and troubled relationship with the newspaper group, alleging it had published “judgmental and narrow-minded” stories about the couple over many years.

Furnish further told the court that a 2010 article about the couple having a child via surrogacy caused particular distress. He claimed the Mail obtained a copy of their son’s birth certificate before they themselves had seen it — something he described as “deeply disturbing.”

“It has outraged us that our family home was violated,” Furnish said, adding that the alleged intrusion extended to Elton John’s private medical records. He also accused the Mail titles of being “actively homophobic” in their coverage of the couple. Photo by Kevin Payravi, Wikimedia commons.