Buckingham Palace, Prince William struck secret deal to settle phone-hacking claim against Murdoch group, Harry seeks redress
- Court documents state that the deal was struck to ‘avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box’
- The News Group Newspapers is being sued by Harry, Prince William’s younger brother of phone-hacking and obtaining private information about him by deception
Britain’s Prince William has settled a phone-hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm for a “very large sum” after a secret deal struck with Buckingham Palace, lawyers for the heir’s brother Prince Harry said in court documents.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, is suing Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) at the High Court in London for multiple unlawful acts allegedly committed on behalf of its tabloids, the Sun and now defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s until 2016.
During three days of preliminary hearings this week, NGN, which has paid out millions of pounds to settle more than a thousand phone-hacking cases, is seeking to strike out claims by the prince and British actor Hugh Grant, arguing they should have taken action sooner.
It also denies anyone from the Sun was involved in any unlawful activity.
In a submission to the court, Harry’s legal team said the reason he had not brought action before was because a deal had been agreed between NGN and the “institution” – Buckingham Palace – to hold off any claims until the conclusion of other outstanding phone-hacking litigation.
