Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has agreed to settle a lawsuit against a UK newspaper group over alleged phone hacking.
The Duke alleged journalists at(NGN) repeatedly hacked his phone between 1996 and 2011 and published stories based on the information they gathered.
NGN, owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, offered a “full and unequivocal apology” and “substantial damages,” but did not legally admit fault.
Here’s the story so far.
Context
NGN is a newspaper publishing company, part of Rupert Murdoch’s corporation News Corp. In the 2000s, two of its papers – The Sun and News of the World (NOTW) – were involved in a phone hacking scandal.
In August 2006, a journalist and a private investigator at NOTW were arrested for hacking the phones of members of the Royal Family. Both were convicted and jailed.
The hacking involved a technological loophole allowing access to other people’s voicemails.
In July 2011, The Guardian published an investigation alleging NOTW staff hacked the voicemail of a missing teenage girl in 2002, giving her family false hope she was still alive by deleting messages.
NOTW was shut down within days of The Guardian’s report. The editors of NOTW and The Sun, Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to hack.
Coulson was found guilty of organising phone hacking, while Brooks was acquitted and continues to work in a senior role at News Corp.
At a public inquiry into UK press ethics, Murdoch said hacking was “a lazy way of reporters not doing their job.”
Lawsuit
In 2019,launched a lawsuit against NGN over the hacking, which he alleged occurred from 1996 to 2011.
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The Duke also alleged NGN orchestrated a cover-up of their behaviour.
According to court documents, Prince Harry alleged he signed a “secret agreement” in 2012 that stopped him from suing until years later, on the condition that News Group Newspapers would eventually either admit to the actions or settle the case with an apology.
Defence
In a statement, News Group Newspapers (NGN) said that “without any admission of illegality,” it apologised for the “phone hacking, surveillance, and misuse of private information” carried out by its employees.
The company acknowledged the “distress caused to the Duke and the damage inflicted on his relationships, friendships, and family.”
The newspaper group also stated it would offer “substantial damages” to Prince Harry.
Princess Diana
The Duke has previously alleged his mother, Princess Diana, was also hacked by NGN and other newspapers.
Diana died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being chased by photographers.
In its apology, NGN acknowledged the impact of the “extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life, as well as the private life of… his late mother, in particular during his younger years.”
Other suits
Last year, Prince Harry won a phone-hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), alleging that his privacy had been breached by journalists phone-hacking him.
In recent years, MGN has settled over 600 phone-hacking claims, but maintains there is “no evidence” that Prince Harry was ever a victim of said practices.
