Prince Harry cast himself as the “last person” who could hold Britain’s tabloids to account for years of predatory conduct during the phone hacking scandal. On Wednesday, he settled for a partial victory in his lonely campaign.
Harry settled a long-running lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers over unlawful information gathering, winning a multimillion dollar payout and, perhaps more significantly, an admission of “unlawful” conduct by private investigators hired by The Sun, the company’s flagship tabloid.
But the settlement averted what could have been weeks of damaging testimony about phone hacking and other unlawful practices News Group used to ferret out personal information about Harry and other prominent figures more than a decade ago. Harry, who did not appear in court on Wednesday, was scheduled to take the stand next month.
It marked the end of an era of high-profile legal cases that grew out of the hacking scandal, one of the darkest periods in the history of the British news media. And it gave Harry long-sought acknowledgment for the relentless intrusion of the tabloids into the life of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by photographers.
News Group Newspapers offered a “full and unequivocal apology” for hacking Harry’s cellphone and intruding into his personal life and that of Diana, “in particular during his 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 company said in a contrite, five-paragraph statement, referring to Harry by his formal title, the Duke of Sussex.
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