In a rare move, Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids have apologized for intruding on the life of Prince Harry.
The Associated Press called it an “unprecedented apology,” which was made along with “substantial damages” paid to the prince for years of spying on his private life.
News Group Newspapers in the statement admitted that the company’s private investigators and writers hacked Harry’s phone, had him under surveillance and misused his private information, giving him a “full and unequivocal apology” for the way the News of the World and The Sun tabloids gathered information about him.
The statement admitted that the company also spied on his late mother, Princess Diana’s, life.
“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 statement said, according to the AP.
News Group admitted in the past that News of the World staff hacked phones. But it was the first time The Sun had admitted to wrongdoing. But the settlement only acknowledges the practices used by external private investigators, not journalists at the publication, the BBC Reported.
Steven Barnett, a University of Westminster communications professor, said it was “a complete vindication for Prince Harry’s crusade,” The Washington Post reported.
“It’s a hugely significant day, because the Sun and Murdoch have spent years, more than 15 years, trying to pretend that nothing happened at the Sun,” Barnett told the newspaper. “I know that their admission is they’ve tried to limit it to private investigators, but these were clearly private investigators who were commissioned by or authorized by journalists at the Sun. So that is a big deal.”
Despite the settlement, News Group Newspapers denies Harry’s claims that there was a coverup and that allegations of evidence destruction were false.
Harry last month said that the goal of his suit “is accountability. It’s really that simple. The scale of the cover up is so large that people need to see it for themselves.”
A statement issued on behalf of the prince after the statement said, “The time for accountability has arrived,” as he said Parliament and law enforcement should investigate the “unlawful activity now finally admitted” and “the perjury and cover ups along the way,” the BBC reported.
More than 1,300 people had settled lawsuits against News of the World concerning the spying. All but two had settled — Prince Harry and Tom Watson, a former Labour Party Parliament member — before this week.
In all, it is believed that more than a billion pounds have been paid in settlements, The Washington Post reported.
Watson also received an apology and settlement but said that Murdoch should issue Harry a personal apology, the king and “countless others,” the AP reported.
The settlement came as the trial which was supposed to start on Tuesday was delayed due to the negotiations.
Harry had, what the AP called, a “feud with the press” since he was young for reporting on all aspects of his private life including girlfriends, injuries and drug experimentation.
He also blames them for his mother’s death after she was killed while being chased by paparazzi in Paris in 1997. He also said he and his wife Meghan Markle’s resignation as working royals and leaving the U.K. was the media’s fault.
His brother William, Prince of Wales, settled a private suit against News Group worth more than a million pounds, the AP reported. Their father, however, opposed the suit brought by Prince Harry.
Harry also sued the Daily Mirror in a case where the judge said that phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” there and at its sister publications. He won that case.
A third lawsuit against the Daily Mail is scheduled to be held next year.
©2025 Cox Media Group
Sign Up
