Prince Harry’s lawyer announced on Wednesday that he had reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers over allegations of illegal data collection – the only case that Harry presented as a last chance to hold the tabloids to account for years of misconduct. .
News Group Newspapers offered Harry a “full and unequivocal apology” for hacking his mobile phone and intruding on his life, and admitted to “unlawful” conduct by private investigators employed by one of the newspapers, The Sun. It was the first time that the News Group acknowledged wrongdoing involving the paper.
The company also apologized for the past intrusion of journalists into the private life of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being followed by photographers.
“We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the Duke, as well as the damage caused to relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages,” the company said in its statement, referring to Harry by his other title, Duke of Sussex.
The settlement, announced the day before the long-awaited trial, shielded News Group Newspapers from weeks of damaging evidence about wiretapping and other illegal methods used more than a decade ago to extract information about Harry and other high-profile people. .
It also protected Harry, 40, the youngest son of King Charles III, from major financial risk, regardless of how he performed at court. Under English law, Harry would have been required to pay the legal costs of both parties if the court had not awarded him an amount equal to what News Group Newspapers offered him to settle the dispute.
News Group Newspapers did not disclose the amount it agreed to pay Harry or his co-plaintiff, Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labor Party, to whom News Group apologized “fully and unreservedly,” but in both cases. he said the amounts were “huge.”
The company apologized to Mr. Watson for “unwarranted interference in her private life during her tenure at the News of the World between 2009-2011,” which included “surveillance by journalists in 2009. in the News of the World and those who are taught by it.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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