Prince Harry’s prolonged legal battle against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group took an unexpected turn on Wednesday (January 22), The Duke of Sussex settled his case over unlawful information gathering just before the trial was set to begin.
The 40-year-old Duke called the settlement “a monumental victory.” The younger son of King Charles had sued News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, accusing journalists and private investigators working for the tabloids of targeting him and his family from 1996 to 2011.
David Sherborne, the duke’s barrister, told London’s High Court that NGN “offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.”
NGN also acknowledged its intrusion into the private life of Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana. A source close to the settlement revealed that the damages amounted to an eight-figure sum.
“In a monumental victory today, News UK have admitted that The Sun, the flagship title for Rupert Murdoch’s UK media empire, has indeed engaged in illegal practices,” Harry and his co-claimant Tom Watson said in a statement.
Reports suggest that the settlement in Prince Harry and Watson’s legal case involved an eight-figure sum, likely covering both legal costs and damages. The trial, which was set to begin at London’s High Court on Tuesday, was delayed several times due to requests from both parties’ lawyers.
Before the trial, which was expected to last eight to 10 weeks, the tabloid group settled 1,300 other claims related to voicemail interception out of court, according to the duke’s legal team. The phone hacking scandal has cost Rupert Murdoch’s media empire over $1.24 billion, as revealed by a 2021 investigation by Press Gazette.
