The Guardian newspaper will challenge a decision to exclude the press from a hearing over whether the Duke of Edinburgh’s will should remain secret at the Court of Appeal. Philip, the nation’s longest-serving consort, died aged 99 on April 9 last year, two months before he would have turned 100.
After the death of a senior member of the royal family, it has been convention for more than a century that an application to seal their will is made to the President of the Family Division of the High Court. This means the wills of senior members of the royal family are not open to public inspection in the way a will would ordinarily be.
The current president, Sir Andrew McFarlane, heard legal argument from lawyers representing Philip’s estate and the Attorney General, who represents the public interest in such matters, at a private hearing in July last year. The Guardian is now challenging the decision to hold that hearing in private, arguing that it was “disproportionate and unjustified”.
