Rupert Murdoch’s UK tabloids have made a rare apology to Prince Harry in settling his privacy invasion lawsuit and will pay him a substantial sum, the royal’s lawyer says.
Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne read a statement in court on Wednesday morning (Wednesday night AEDT) saying News Group offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex” for years of unlawful intrusion.
The bombshell announcement in London’s High Court as the Duke of Sussex’s trial was about to start against the publishers of The Sun and now-defunct News of the World for unlawfully snooping on him over decades.
Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, and one other man were the only two remaining claimants out of more than 1300 others who had settled lawsuits against News Group Newspapers over allegations their phones were hacked and investigators unlawfully intruded in their lives.
In all the cases that have been brought against the publisher since a widespread phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to close News of the World in 2011, Harry’s case got the closest to trial.
“One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I’m the last person that can actually achieve that,” Harry told The New York Times Dealbook Summit in December when he said he wouldn’t settle.
