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Prince Harry claimed a monumental victory on Wednesday when Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life over decades and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.
News Group Newspapers offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun into his private life between 1996 and 2011,” Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, read from a statement in court.
The statement even went beyond the scope of the case to acknowledge infringement on the life of Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana and the impact it had on his family.
“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 substantial damages,” the settlement statement said.
His phone was hacked and he was spied on
It was the first time News Group had acknowledged wrongdoing at The Sun, a paper that once sold millions of copies with its formula of sport, celebrity and sex – including topless women on Page 3.
Harry had vowed to take his case to trial to expose the newspaper’s wrongdoing and win a court ruling upholding his claims.
FILE – News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch delivers a keynote address at the National Summit on Education Reform in San Francisco, October 14, 2011.
AP Photo/Noah Berger, File
In a statement read by his lawyer, Harry claimed he had achieved the accountability he sought for himself and hundreds of others, including ordinary people, who were snooped on.
News Group acknowledged “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators” targeting Harry. NGN had strongly denied these allegations before trial.
“This represents a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling without being told the truth of what was done to them,” Sherborne said outside the High Court in London.
Wrong claim at the top
The bombshell announcement came after the start of the trial was delayed a day as last-minute deals heated up outside court.
Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, and Tom Watson, a former Labor Party member of parliament, were the only two remaining claimants out of more than 1,300 others who filed lawsuits against News Group Newspapers over allegations that their phones were hacked and investigators illegally intruded into their lives.
The company engaged in “perjury and cover-ups” to hide the truth for years, deleting 30 million emails and other records, Harry and Watson said in a joint statement read by Sherborne.
“There was an extensive conspiracy,” the statement said, in which “senior executives deliberately obstructed justice.”
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News Group said in a statement that it would have disputed at trial that evidence was destroyed and it continues to deny those accusations.
While News Group had issued an unreserved apology for its wrongdoing in closing the News of the World, it had never done so at The Sun and had vehemently denied the allegations.
The statement read by Sherborne was aimed at Rebekah Brooks, now the CEO overseeing News Group, who had been the editor at The Sun when she was acquitted at a criminal trial in a phone hacking case.
“At her trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks said: ‘When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,'” he said. “Ten years later, when she is CEO of the company, they now give to, when she was editor of The Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise.”
NGN apologized for crimes by private eyes hired by The Sun, but not for anything done by its journalists.
Two cases down, one to go
Of all the cases brought against the publisher since a widespread phone-hacking scandal forced Murdoch to shut down News of the World in 2011, Harry’s case has come closest to trial.
Murdoch closed the paper after the Guardian reported that the tabloid’s reporters hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl, in 2002 while police searched for her.
Harry’s case against NGN was one of three he brought accusing British tabloids of violating his privacy by tapping phone messages or using private investigators to illegally help them score scoops.
His case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror ended in victory when the judge ruled that phone hacking was “widespread and commonplace” at the paper and its sister publications.
During that trial in 2023, Harry became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court since the late 19th century, putting him at odds with the monarchy’s desire to keep its problems out of sight.
The outcome in the News Group case raises questions about how his third case – against the publisher of the Daily Mail – will proceed. That test is planned for next year.
Source of a bitter struggle
Harry’s feud with the press dates back to his youth, when the tabloids delighted in reporting on everything from his injuries to his girlfriends to his dabbling in drugs.
But his fury with the tabloids goes much deeper.
He blames the media for the death of his mother, who was killed in a car accident in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi in Paris. He also blames her for the continuous attacks on his wife, an actor Meghan Marklethat led her to leave royal life and flee to the US in 2020.
Princess Diana and Price Harry in 1995.
Photo: Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images
The lawsuit was a source of friction in his family, Harry said in the documentary Tabloids On Trial.
He revealed in court papers that his father opposed his lawsuit. He also said his older brother William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, had settled a private claim against News Group that his lawyer said was worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.23 million).
“I’m doing this for my reasons,” Harry told the documentary makers, although he said he wanted his family to be with him.
Harry and the other holdout
Harry was originally one of dozens of plaintiffs, including actor Hugh Grant, who alleged that News Group journalists and investigators they hired violated their privacy between 1994 and 2016 by intercepting voicemails, tapping phones, bugging cars and use deception to gain access to confidential information.
Of the original group of claimants, Harry and former lawmaker Tom Watson were the holdouts headed for trial.
FILE – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters on July 18, 2022.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File
Watson, who was targeted by NGN when he was part of an investigation into allegations of tabloid wrongdoing, said the intrusion had taken a heavy toll on himself and his family.
“I once said that the big animals of the tabloid jungle have no predators,” Watson said. “I was wrong, they have Prince Harry. … We are grateful to him for his immense support and his determination under extraordinary pressure.
Watson, who also received an apology and a substantial settlement, called on Murdoch to issue a personal apology to Harry, the king and “countless others” affected by tabloid intrusion.
News Group said the settlements mark the end of more than a decade of litigation after the News of the World was shut down.
NGN has now settled more than 1,300 claims without going to trial. In doing so, it has spent more than 1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion) on payments and legal costs, Harry and Watson said in their statement.
