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Prince Harry claims 'monumental victory' after reaching settlement in tabloid battle: What to know about phone hacking case
Just as opening arguments were to begin in the London trial, a settlement in the case was reached.
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Prince Harry has scored a legal victory in his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's U.K. News Group Newspapers (NGN).
On Jan. 22, it was announced that a settlement had been reached in the case, filed in 2019, which saw Harry, 40, accuse The Sun and defunct tabloid News of the World of illegally obtaining private information about him. The prince received a public apology and an eight-figure settlement, which People magazine reported likely exceeded $12 million, including both damages and Harry’s legal fees.
On the company website, NGN issued a "full and unequivocal apology" for "serious intrusion" into Harry’s private life between 1996 and 2011, “including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators” working for The Sun. He also was issued an apology "for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World," a tabloid that shuttered in 2011.
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The publisher also apologized for intruding into the Princess Diana’s private life. Harry’s mother died in 1997 following a car accident in Paris in which photographers pursued her vehicle.
Harry was joined in the lawsuit by Tom Watson, a former senior British lawmaker. The trial started on Tuesday at the High Court in London but was halted due to the settlement negotiation. Harry, who now lives in Southern California, was not in court.
Outside of court on Wednesday, David Sherborne, who represents Harry and Watson, read a statement on behalf of his clients in which they called the settlement “a monumental victory.”
"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," said the statement.
Phone hacks and spying on the young princeSince 2019, Harry has sued three different newspaper groups — also including Mirror Group Newspapers and Associated Newspapers — for publishing stories about him with information that was obtained by tapping his phone, intercepting voicemail messages, bugging cars and other means of illegal intrusion.
In court documents in the NGN case, Harry alleged that it extended to the publisher paying for his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s phone records and monitoring her phone. Harry also alleged that the organization illegally obtained his medical records.
While The Sun is still in operation, the News of the World was shut down in 2011 after the phone hacking claims were exposed. NGN has settled 1,300 other claims, including with Sienna Miller and Hugh Grant, over hacks. It has cost the company more than $1.24 billion in payouts and legal fees, according to the Associated Press.
Harry said in 2023 that Prince William secretly settled a phone hacking claim against Murdoch’s company.
Harry previously testified that phone hacking led to 'distrust' in relationships and 'impacted my adolescence'In 2023, Harry testified in his trial against a different publisher, Mirror Group, over similar allegations of phone hacking. In the witness box, he spoke about how the tabloids played "a destructive role” in his life.
Harry said the alleged hacking made him paranoid and unable to trust people, and it affected his relationships, including with his brother, Prince William, with whom he has had a fractured relationship. That’s because voicemail messages they left each other were hacked and it seeded “distrust between brothers" because they became suspicious of each other.
Harry said that voicemail messages exchanged with Davy, who he dated from 2004 to 2010, were also turned into tabloid fodder. He said he could “never understand how private elements of our life together were finding their way into the tabloids,” leading to "bouts of depression and paranoia." It caused "great challenges" in the relationship, and Davy made “the decision that a royal life was not for her,” Harry said, calling it “incredibly upsetting.”
Harry also testified that personal medical diagnoses were turned into news stories, and outlets published "purposefully misleading" press reports about drug use.
"I felt that I couldn't trust anybody, which was an awful feeling for me especially at such a young age,” he said in his witness statement. “I feel somewhat relieved to know that my paranoia towards my friends and family had, in fact, been misplaced, although [I] feel sad for how much it impacted my adolescence.”
Harry won his lawsuit against Mirror Group in 2023.
The same year, Harry claimed in his memoir, Spare, that the royal family planted negative tabloid stories about him and wife, Meghan Markle, resulting in them stepping down from royal life and leaving England.
Lawsuit against Daily Mail continuesOf the three major lawsuits that Harry filed against British news groups, there is now one remaining against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail.
Harry joins others — including Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley — who allege that they are "the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy," due to similar illegal tactics involving listening devices inside people's cars and homes, private telephone calls being recorded, medical records and bank accounts being accessed. That case could go to trial in 2026.
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