London — Britain’s Prince Harry has settled his lawsuit against media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group, according to News Group Newspapers, his lawyer told CBS News on Wednesday.
In the lawsuit brought by Harry in 2019, along with a former senior British MP, they sued News Group for alleged unlawful activities carried out by both tabloid journalists and private investigators employed by the newspapers, The Sun, and no longer circulating News of the world. It’s one of one number of lawsuits Harry has filed against newspapers in Great Britain.
“NGN offers the Duke of Sussex a full and unequivocal apology for the serious intrusion into his private life made by The Sun between 1996 and 2011, including incidents of unlawful activity carried out by private investigators working for The Sun,” the media company said . This is evident from a statement read out in court on Wednesday. The statement also included an apology for the activities of journalists and private investigators who worked for News of the World.
“NGN further apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive reporting and serious intrusion into his private life, as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly during his younger years. “We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the Duke and the damage caused to relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him significant compensation,” the statement said.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
News Group has faced numerous lawsuits over allegations of phone hacking and illegal information gathering, and has handled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving politicians and celebrities. However, it has always denied that The Sun newspaper was involved in illegal activities, or that leading figures were aware of anything illegal and tried to cover it up.
Harry had previously said he wanted to go to court to get the truth out, rather than get a payout, after other claimants reached an out-of-court settlement.
In court documents that emerged in 2023, Prince Harry claimed that his own brother, heir to the British throne Prince William, quietly received “a very large sum of money” in a 2020 phone hacking settlement with Murdoch’s British newspaper group.
“After endless resistance, denials and legal battles by News Group newspapers, including spending over a billion pounds in payouts and legal fees (and paying off those in the know) to prevent the full picture from coming out, says News UK is finally being held to account for its illegal actions and its blatant disregard for the law,” said a statement read outside court on Wednesday on behalf of Prince Harry and the British lawmaker who brought the lawsuit with him. “The truth that has now emerged is that NGN unlawfully engaged more than 100 private investigators on more than 35,000 occasions over a period of at least 16 years. This happened at both The Sun and the News of the World, with the knowledge of all editors and executives, right up to the top of the company.”
Emma Jones, a board member of the advocacy group Hacked Off, which has been working with Harry on his lawsuit, said on Tuesday that proceedings would resume that morning, but that both sides had asked for additional time as settlement talks were ongoing. .
Jones said there will be “a tremendous amount of money passing through,” but she said she did not know the exact amount.
She said Harry also wanted “some kind of confession… which NGN (News Group) implies. An admission, in a sense, of what was going on,” Jones said.
“He doesn’t want to just walk away from this with an apology. He wants something tangible that he can say well, you know, ‘At least I got this. I proved my point,'” Jones said as negotiations continued Tuesday.