The Duke of Sussex is suing Murdoch’s news group Newspapers
Prince Harry was summoned to Buckingham Palace and asked to drop cases against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper. BBC Report.
The Duke of Sussex is suing Murdoch’s news group Newspapers (NGN) at the High Court in London over a series of alleged illegal acts on the part of its tabloids, The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s to 2016. suing for. ,
NGN, which has paid out millions of pounds to settle more than a thousand phone-hacking cases, this week sought to debunk Harry’s claim and that of British actor Hugh Grant, arguing that they should Should have taken the same action, according to a report by Reuters.
Harry lashed out against senior NGN figures and his own family, whom he accuses of colluding with the press to protect his image, saying the embarrassment between Buckingham Palace and senior NGN figures A “secret agreement” was made to escape, according to a 31-page witness statement.
Prince Harry has claimed that Buckingham Palace and the newspaper group have a backroom deal – which is why he didn’t make the claim earlier. He said he first learned about the alleged deal around 2012, the BBC report said.
The Duke of Sussex claimed that as part of the deal, courtiers had secretly agreed that members of the royal family would drop legal claims, and the newspaper group sought to one day settle out of court to protect its image. promised.
Citing the reason, Prince Harry said, “The reason was to avoid a situation where a member of the Royal Family would have to sit in the witness box and retell specific details of private and highly sensitive voicemails that were intercepted.” Was. “
In his presentation, NGN lawyer Anthony Hudson denied there was any “secret agreement” between the publisher and the royal family. He argued that, even if a deal had been struck, it did not affect his case that the suit was brought too late.
In 2012, Murdoch’s British newspaper group issued an unreserved apology for the widespread hacking carried out by journalists at the News of the World, which the media mogul was forced to close amid backlash, although it is still on the Sun. Denies any allegation of wrongdoing. ,
During a criminal trial against News of the World journalists and others in 2014, its former royal editor Clive Goodman said he had hacked the voicemails of Harry and William and William’s wife Kate in the mid-2000s , said a Reuters report.
Goodman said her phone had been hacked 155 times, William’s 35 times and Harry’s nine times.
It is also said that Prince William settled a phone-hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper branch for a “very large sum”.