Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloid newspaper business has apologised and agreed to pay “substantial damages” to Prince Harry as it admitted for the first time that unlawful activities took place at The Sun.
In a landmark settlement with the Duke of Sussex, his barrister David Sherborne told the High Court in London on Wednesday that News Group Newspapers had offered a “full and unequivocal apology” for “serious intrusion” into the prince’s private life by The Sun between 1996 and 2011.
The admissions are a blow to the Murdoch empire, which has spent a decade denying any wrongdoing at The Sun even as it paid more than £1bn in costs and settlements to cover almost all of the phone-hacking claims against the wider UK news group.
But it will mean NGN will avoid having a court rule on broad allegations of phone hacking and other unlawful activity, as well as claims of a cover-up involving top executives.
In a statement NGN said it was sorry “for the distress caused to the duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family” and apologised to the prince for its treatment of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother.
The company added that it had agreed to pay him “substantial damages” related to “unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun”. No value was specified.
The prince was the only remaining claimant in a High Court case against NGN alongside Labour’s former deputy leader Lord Tom Watson, to whom the company also apologised on Wednesday.
The company offered a “full and unequivocal” apology to Watson for “unwarranted intrusion” into his private life during his time in government by the defunct News of the World between 2009 and 2011.
It acknowledged he was placed under surveillance in 2009 by journalists at the Sunday tabloid and also agreed to pay him “substantial damages”. Terms were not disclosed.
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