London — Britain’s Prince Harry has settled against the British newspaper group owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, News Group Newspapers, his lawyer told CBS News on Wednesday.
In a 2019 lawsuit brought by Harry, along with a former senior British MP, they sued the News Group for alleged illegal activities by both tabloid journalists and private investigators employed by its newspaper, The Sun, and the defunct newspaper. News from the world. It is one of a the number of lawsuits Harry has filed against newspapers in Britain.
“NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for The Sun’s serious interference in his private life between 1996 and 2011, including incidents of illegal activity carried out by private investigators working for The Sun,” the media company said in a statement read on in court on Wednesday. The statement also included an apology for the activities of journalists and private investigators working for the News of the World.
“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 that 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 we agreed to pay him substantial compensation,” the statement said.
News Group has faced numerous lawsuits over allegations of phone hacking and illegal information gathering, and has settled more than 1,300 cases involving politicians and celebrities. However, he has always denied that The Sun newspaper was involved in any illegal activities, or that senior figures were aware of anything illegal and tried to cover it up.
Harry previously said he wanted to go to trial to get the truth, not to get paid, after other plaintiffs settled out of court.
In court documents that appeared 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 phone-hacking settlement with Murdoch’s British news group in 2020.
“After endless resistance, denial and legal battles by News Group Newspapers, including spending more than a billion pounds on payouts and legal fees (as well as pay-offs to those in the know) to prevent the full picture from coming out, News UK is finally responding for his illegal actions and flagrant disregard for the law,” read a statement read outside the court on Wednesday on behalf of Prince Harry and the British MP who filed the suit with him. “The truth that has now been exposed is that NGN illegally employed more than 100 private investigators over at least 16 years on more than 35,000 occasions. This happened at both The Sun and the News of the World, with the knowledge of all editors and executives, going to the very top of the company.”
On Tuesday, Emma Jones, a board member of the advocacy group Hacked Off, who worked with Harry on his lawsuit, said the case was scheduled to resume that morning, but both sides had asked for more time as settlement negotiations were ongoing. .
Jones said “a huge amount of money is going to change hands,” but said she didn’t know the exact amount.
She said Harry also wanted “some kind of acknowledgment … that NGN (News Group) implies. Acknowledgment, in a way, of what happened,” 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 have this. I proved my point,'” Jones said as negotiations continued Tuesday.