Prince Harry has achieved a “monumental victory” in an unexpected way. On January 22, the Duke of Sussex settled his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group. News Group Newspapers, or NGN, is the publisher of The Sun and News of the World. Harry had sued NGN for unethically seeking out private information about him over a period of many years.
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NGN agreed to pay substantial damages.
In a statement, Harry and his co-claimant Tom Watson said The Sun admitted to having “engaged in illegal practices,” per Reuters. A source told the new outlet that the newspaper group agreed to pay Prince Harry an eight-figure sum in damages. According to People, the amount was likely more than $12 million.
The newspaper group admitted to wrongdoing.
Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne told the court that NGN offered “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life,” per the Associated Press. In Prince Harry and Watson’s statement, read by their lawyer, they said “the cover-ups are exposed,” proving “that no one stands above the law.”
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In its apology to Prince Harry, the publisher admitted to ‘phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information.’
The Guardian has published NGN’s full apology to Prince Harry. In the apology, NGN admitted to “incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun.”
The publisher also offered “a full and unequivocal apology” for “the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.”
Additionally, the publisher mentioned Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, in the apology.
NGN apologized for “distress caused to the duke” as a result of the tabloids’ “extensive coverage and serious intrusion.” The publisher also acknowledged the negative impact of the tabloids’ coverage of “the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during (Harry’s) younger years.”
“We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the Duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages,” the apology read.
The trial was meant to start on January 21.
The trial was expected to last eight to 10 weeks, per CNN. The settlement is considered a victory because the publisher had denied any wrongdoing for years. Sherborne called the outcome “a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them.”
The lawyer asserted that NGN was “finally held to account for its illegal actions and its blatant disregard for the law.”
