Prince Harry settles lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group to apologize for ‘serious damages’

LONDON — Britain’s Prince Harry has settled his lawsuit against media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper conglomerate, News Group Newspapers, his lawyer told CBS News on Wednesday.

Harry’s 2019 lawsuit, along with a former senior British lawmaker, sued News Group over alleged illegal activities by tabloid journalists and private investigators working for its newspaper, The Sun, and the newspaper, which is no longer in circulation. World news. It is one of the A Number of lawsuits filed by Harry Against newspapers in Britain.

“NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion carried out by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 in his private life, including incidents of illegal activity by private investigators working for The Sun,” the media company said in a statement. A statement was read out in court Wednesday. The statement also included an apology for the activities of journalists and private investigators working for the News of the World.

“NGN also apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious interference in his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly during his younger years. We acknowledge and acknowledge the distress caused to the Duke,” the statement read. “And the damage to relationships, friendships and family, and we agreed to pay him significant compensation.”

News Group has faced numerous lawsuits over allegations of phone hacking and illegal information gathering, and has settled more than 1,300 cases involving politicians and celebrities. But it has always denied that The Sun was involved in any illegal activities, or that senior figures knew about anything illegal and tried to cover it up.

Harry had previously said he wanted to go to court to get to the truth, rather than seek damages, after other claimants settled out of court.

In court documents that appeared in 2023, Prince Harry claimed That his brother, heir to the British throne Prince William, quietly received “a very large sum of money” in a 2020 phone hacking settlement with the Murdoch-owned British newspaper group.

“After endless resistance, denial and legal battles by News Group newspapers, including spending more than £1 billion in payments and legal costs (plus paying damages to those who knew about it) to prevent the full picture from emerging, UK News said in a statement. A statement read outside court Wednesday on behalf of Prince Harry and the British lawmaker who brought the case with him: “Prince Harry has finally been held accountable for his unlawful actions and blatant disregard for the law. “The truth now revealed is that NGN illegally engaged more than… 100 private investigators over at least 16 years on over 35,000 occasions. “It happened at The Sun as it happened at the News of the World, with the knowledge of all the editors and executives going to the top of the company.”

On Tuesday, Emma Jones, a board member of Hacked Off, which worked with Harry on his lawsuit, said proceedings were scheduled to resume that morning, but both sides requested additional time while settlement talks were ongoing. .

Jones said that “a huge amount of money will be changing hands,” but said she did not know the exact amount.

She said Harry also wanted “some sort of confession… that implicates NGN (the news group). Some sort of confession of what happened,” Jones said.

“He doesn’t want to walk away from this with an apology,” Jones said as negotiations continued Tuesday. “He wants something concrete that he can say well, you know, at least I have this. I’ve proven my point.”