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Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper business has apologized and agreed to pay “significant damages” to Prince Harry as it admitted for the first time that illegal activities took place in The Sun.
In an important agreement with the Duke of Sussex, his lawyer David Sherborne told the High Court in London on Wednesday that the News Group Newspapers made a “full and impartial apology” for “serious interference” in the private life of the prince by The Sun in mid-1996. and 2011.
Acceptance is a hit on the Murdoch empire, which spent a decade denying any wrongdoing at the Sun even as it paid more than £1bn in costs and settlements to cover almost all phone-hacking claims against the UK-wide media group.
But it would mean that NGN would avoid a court ruling on the broader allegations of phone hacking and other illegal activities, as well as claims of cover-ups involving senior executives.
In a statement NGN said it was sorry for “the distress caused to the duke, and the damage it has caused to relationships, friendships and family” and apologized to the prince for his treatment of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother.
The company added that it had agreed to pay him “significant damages” related to “illegal activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun”. No price specified.
The prince was the only remaining plaintiff in the High Court case against NGN and former Labor deputy leader Tom Watson, with whom the company apologized on Wednesday.
The company issued a “full and unreserved” apology to Watson for the “unwarranted intrusion” into her private life during her time in the government by News of the World between 2009 and 2011.
It admitted that he was put under surveillance in 2009 by journalists from a Sunday newspaper and agreed to pay him “significant damages”. The terms were not specified.