Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, arrives at the Rolls Building of the High Court, in London, on June 7, 2023.Hannah McKay/Reuters
Prince Harry has won an apology and financial damages from the owner of London’s The Sun newspaper for the “serious intrusion” into his private life and the life of his mother, Diana, the former Princess of Wales, during a 15-year period.
The apology is part of a legal settlement the Duke of Sussex reached on Wednesday with News Group Newspapers (NGN), a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns The Sun and the defunct News of the World. The agreement ended a long-running legal battle involving allegations that staff at the tabloids intercepted voice-mail messages and used other deceptive practices to gather information on hundreds of celebrities and politicians from 1996 to 2011.
In a statement the company said it offered “a full and unequivocal apology” to Harry for the intrusions into his private life, “including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun.”
“NGN also offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World,” the statement added. “NGN further apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years.”
The company acknowledged the distress caused to Harry, as well as his friends and family, and promised to pay the Duke “substantial damages.” It’s not clear how much that will be but NGN has agreed to cover all of the legal costs in the case, which total around $17.7-million.
Since 2011, NGN has settled around 1,300 claims, including a case involving Harry’s brother, Prince William. The company has paid out more than $1.7-billion in settlements and closed the News of the World in 2011 in response to widespread claims of phone hacking.
However, this marks the first time NGN has acknowledged any wrongdoing at the Sun. Until now, it had said the illicit conduct occurred at the News of the World.
Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, called the settlement a “monumental victory” and demanded that London’s Metropolitan Police investigate the allegations raised in the civil claim.
“News UK have admitted that the Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices,” Mr. Sherborne told reporters on Wednesday.
During a brief court hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Sherborne said that NGN engaged more than 100 private investigators, on 35,000 occasions, who used unlawful means to obtain information. “Today the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law. The time for accountability has arrived.”
The settlement raises more questions about the actions of Rebekah Brooks, a former editor of News of the World and the Sun who now heads News Corp.’s U.K. operations, which include the Sun and the London Times. Ms. Brooks was acquitted of criminal charges related to phone hacking in 2014.
“At her trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks, said, ‘When I was editor of the Sun we ran a clean ship,’” Mr. Sherborne told the court on Wednesday. “Now, 10 years later when she is CEO of the company, they now admit, when she was editor of the Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise.”
Mr. Sherborne also said NGN engaged in a widespread cover-up after the phone hacking allegations came to light in 2006 with the arrest of the News of the World’s royals editor and a private investigator. “Senior executives deliberately obstructed justice by deleting over 30 million e-mails, destroying backup tapes and making false denials – all in the face of an ongoing police investigation.” The executives “repeatedly lied under oath to cover their tracks” both in court and during a public inquiry into phone hacking led by retired judge Brian Leveson, he added.
Harry had refused to settle the NGN case for years. “The goal is accountability. It’s really that simple,” he said last month at an event sponsored by The New York Times. “One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I’m the last person that can actually achieve that and also closure for these 1,300 people and families.”
But the financial costs could have been crippling had he lost the trial, including the prospect of covering NGN’s legal bills as well as his own. Even if he had won, the damages could have been far less than what NGN has agreed to pay in the settlement.
This lawsuit was one of many in Harry’s protracted battle against the tabloids. He has blamed relentless reporting for the death of his mother, Diana, who died in 1997 in a car crash. And he has said harassment by the press was one of the reasons he and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, left England. He has frequently referred to journalists as ruthless, toxic, sadists, dweebs, bullies and the devil, and vowed that his life’s mission is to reform “the media landscape in the U.K.”
In 2023, he scored a legal victory over Mirror Group Newspaper Ltd., which publishes London-based newspapers the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday. A High Court judge found there had been “extensive and habitual” phone hacking between 1999 and 2006 by journalists at the MGN. Around 100 other celebrities have filed similar actions against the MGN. Harry was awarded $249,000 “for the distress that he suffered.”
He has also sued the publishers of the Daily Mail over similar allegations. That case is set for trial next year.