Murdoch’s UK newspaper company apologizes to Prince Harry for illegal activities

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Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloid company has apologized and agreed to pay “substantial damages” to Prince Harry, admitting for the first time that illegal activities had taken place at The Sun newspaper.

In a landmark settlement with the Duke of Sussex, his lawyer David Sherborne told the High Court in London on Wednesday that News Group newspapers had made a “full and unequivocal apology” for the “serious intrusion” into the prince’s private life by The Sun newspaper between 1996 and 1996. And 2011.

Acceptance is a hit to Murdoch Empire, which has spent a decade denying any wrongdoing at The Sun, despite having paid more than £1bn in costs and settlements to cover almost all of the phone hacking allegations against the wider British news group.

But it means NGN will avoid getting a court ruling on widespread allegations of phone hacking and other illegal activity, as well as allegations of a cover-up involving senior executives.

NGN said in a statement that it regretted “the distress caused to the Duke and the damage to relationships, friendships and family” and apologized to the prince for its treatment of his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales.

The company added that it had agreed to pay him “substantial compensation” related to “unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.” No value specified.

The prince was the only remaining plaintiff in the High Court case against NGN alongside former Labor deputy leader Lord Tom Watson, to whom the company also apologized on Wednesday.

The company issued a “full and unequivocal” apology to Watson for the “unwarranted interference” in his private life during his time in government by the defunct News of the World newspaper between 2009 and 2011.

She admitted that he had been placed under surveillance in 2009 by journalists at the Sunday tabloid and also agreed to pay him “substantial compensation”. The terms were not disclosed.