Prince Harry has reached a settlement with the Rupert Murdoch-owned publisher of tabloid The Sun, his lawyer announced Wednesday, ending a long-running legal battle the British royal had previously insisted must go to trial to ensure “accountability” for other alleged victims of hacking and surveillance by the news organisation.
Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
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Key Takeaways
- In a statement to the press, Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne said the Sun’s publisher has agreed to pay “substantial damages” for unlawfully intruding into his personal life and hacking his phone.
- The settlement involves an eight-figure sum that largely covered legal fees, Reuters reported—and while that is not a huge settlement by American standards, it is “a staggering sum” in the United Kingdom, NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik notes.
- The publisher agreed to make a “full and unequivocal apology” to Harry for “the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them.”
- The publisher said it further apologizes to the Duke of Sussex for the “distress caused” to him and “the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family.”
- The publisher’s apology also mentions the impact of the “extensive coverage and serious intrusion” into both his private life and the private life of his late mother Princess Diana.
- The settlement announcement comes a day after Sherborne requested the judge overseeing the case to delay the start of the trial.
Crucial Quote
Harry’s lawyer told reporters: “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.”
Tangent
Sherborne also harshly criticized News Group Newspapers and said its senior executives obstructed justice by deleting “over 30 million emails,” making “false denials,” lying under oath in court and during parliament testimonies. The royal’s lawyer urged U.K. Parliament to investigate “not only the unlawful activity, now finally admitted, but the perjury and coverups along the way.”
Key Background
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have in recent years spoken out against British tabloid press coverage of their private lives, accusing the papers of publishing “distorted, false or invasive” stories. The case against News Group Newspaper is one of several the Duke of Sussex has pursued against the tabloids, with varying results. In 2023, the publisher of the Daily Mirror was ordered by a U.K. court to pay Harry £140,600 ($173,000) in damages for hacking his cell phones.
The court found at least 15 articles published by the outlet were based on information derived from the phone hacking or “other unlawful information gathering.” Last year, the Mirror Group agreed to pay Harry an additional £400,000 ($494,000) to settle his other claims against the publisher. Aside from the Mirror Group and NGN, Harry has also pursued legal action against the Daily Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers. In February 2022, he filed a libel suit after the Mail published a story claiming the Duke of Sussex lied about his willingness to pay for police protection for himself and his family while in the U.K.
Harry eventually dropped the suit after an unfavorable court ruling last year, which ordered him to pay the tabloid £50,000 ($61,700) in legal fees. Harry, however, is also part of a much larger suit against Associated Newspapers along with Elton John and other prominent British public figures. That suit accuses the Mail’s publisher of using unlawful means to obtain information about the celebrities.
Surprising Fact
William Lewis—a former executive at Murdoch’s UK news company and now CEO and publisher of The Washington Post—would have likely been a key figure in the trial, though he was not a defendant in the case and denied wrongdoing.
Last July, Harry’s lawyers submitted a statement arguing Lewis “fabricated a fake security threat” in 2011 as a way to delete emails related to the scandal as part of a broader coverup, NPR reported.
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