Murdoch secretly pays “a large sum of money” to Prince William for the ‘hacking’ of his phone

Prince William of England has reached a deal with buckingham palace to solve a lawsuit for phone hacking against the British part of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch’s company, for a “very high sum“, as declared by the lawyers of the brother of the heirPrince Harry, in court documents.

Harry, the younger son of King Charleshas sued Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) before the London High Court for multiple wrongdoing allegedly committed on behalf of his tabloids, the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from the mid-1990s to 2016.

During three days of preliminary hearings this week NGN, which has paid million pounds to solve over a thousand phone hacking casesintends to annul the demands of the prince and the British actor Hugh grant, arguing that they should have acted earlier. He also denies that anyone from the ‘Sun’ newspaper was involved in any illegal activities.

[Así es David Cholmondeley, el marido de la amante de Guillermo que sostuvo 30 años la Corona británica]

In a brief filed with the court, Harry’s legal team says the reason he had not sued sooner was that an agreement had been reached between NGN and the “institution” – Buckingham Palace – to defer any lawsuit until other pending litigation over the phonejacking was concluded.

“In response to this NGN’s attempt to prevent their claims from going to trialthe plaintiff had to make details public of this secret agreement, as well as the fact that his brother, HRH Prince William, has recently settled its lawsuit against NGN behind the scenes“, their lawyers said. They added that this agreement has been “for a large sum of money“.

hacked phone

During a criminal trial against ‘News of the World’ journalists, among others, in 2014, former royal editor Clive Goodman said in the mid-2000s that had hacked into Harry’s voicemails, as well as those of Guillermo, and his wife, Kate. In total, his phone was hacked 155 timesGuillermo’s 35 and Harry’s nine times, Goodman said.

In his witness statement, quoted by his lawyers, the prince said the secret agreement was reached to “avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit on the dais and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voice messages that they had been intercepted”.

Harry said Buckingham Palace “wanted at all costs” to avoid reputational damage caused by the publication in the 90s of the details of a “intimate phone conversation“between Charles and the now Queen Consort Camilla, when her father was still married to her mother, Princess Diana.

The document also said that Harry’s grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth IIhad participated in the discussions and in 2017 had given his permission for him to proceed with his case.

In his plea, NGN’s lawyer Anthony Hudson denied that there was a “secret agreement” between the publisher and the royal family. He argued that even if there was an agreement, it did not affect his case that the lawsuit was filed too late.

[Así es Oswald’s, el club más exclusivo de Londres y refugio de presidentes, príncipes y el rey Juan Carlos]

unreserved apologies

In 2012, the British press group of Murdoch apologized unreservedly. by the widespread hacking carried out by journalists from the ‘News of the World’, which the media mogul had closed after a violent public reaction.

Nevertheless, has always rejected any illegal activity in the ‘Sun’previously run by Rebekah Brooks, now chief executive of its UK arm, News UK. She has always denied knowledge of the phone hack and was declared innocent in the 2014 trial for his involvement.

Last week, Murdoch-owned Fox Corp. settled a US defamation lawsuit over $787.5 millionbut reports suggest that figure is dwarfed by Britain’s wiretapping scandal.

In 2021, the media industry magazine Press Gazette estimated that phone hijacking had cost NGN more than £1bnand in its accounts last year the group stated it might need to spend another £100m. The case is one of four Harry is taking against British newspapers.