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Prince William

William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cambridge (English: William Arthur Philip Louis) is a member has reached a secret out-of-court settlement for "a very large sum" in a phone hacking claim against the British branch of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper company, BTA reported. , citing court filings from lawyers for the brother of Britain's Crown Prince Harry

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David).

Harry, the younger son of King Charles, is suing Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN) at the High Court in London over a range of alleged wrongdoing by its tabloids The Sun and the now defunct News of the World, mid-1990s to 2016.

During three days of preliminary hearings this week, the NGN, which has paid out millions of pounds to settle more than a thousand phone hacking cases, is seeking to strike out Prince Harry's claims

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David), and British actor Hugh Grant, claiming that they should have taken legal action earlier.

The press group also denies that anyone at the Sun newspaper was involved in any illegal activity.

Harry and William at knifepoint, won't be on speaking terms at Charles III's coronation

In a statement to the court, Harry's legal team said the reason he had not sued earlier was because there was an agreement between the NHS and Buckingham Palace to delay any new claims until the ongoing phone hacking lawsuits were concluded.

"In response to this offer by the NGN to delay the arrival of Prince Harry's claims

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David), pending trial, the plaintiff had to make public details of this collusion, as well as the fact that his brother, His Royal Highness Prince William

William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cambridge (English: William Arthur Philip Louis) is a member, recently settled his claims against the NGN out of court," the prince's lawyers said.

They added that Murdoch's press team had agreed with Prince William

William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cambridge (English: William Arthur Philip Louis) is a "very large amount of money in 2020" member.

Prince William's office

William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cambridge (in English: William Arthur Philip Louis) is a member who has announced that he cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

During the 2014 criminal trial against the News of the World, the tabloid's former palace editor Clive Goodman testified that in the mid-2000s he had illegally intercepted the voicemails of Prince Harry

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David), and his brother Prince William

William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Cambridge (English: William Arthur Philip Louis) is also a member of his wife Kate.

Her phone was tapped 155 times, William's 35 times and Harry's nine times, Goodman admitted.

In his witness statement, quoted by his lawyers, Prince Harry

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David), said that the secret agreement was concluded to "avoid a situation where a member of the royal family would have to appear as a witness and narrate specific details of the private and highly sensitive voice messages that were intercepted."

Prince Harry

Prince Henry Charles Albert David Mountbatten-Windsor, Duke of Sussex (in English Henry Charles Albert David), also shared that Buckingham Palace wanted to "avoid at all costs the reputational damage caused by the publication in the 1990s of details of an "intimate telephone conversation" between Charles and the current Queen Consort Camilla when his father was still married to his mother Princess Diana".

The document also said that Harry's grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was involved in the discussions and in 2017 gave her consent for him to proceed with the legal cases.

In his deposition, NGN's lawyer, Anthony Hudson, denied that there was any "collusion" between the publisher and the royal family.

He argued that even if there had been an agreement, it did not affect the case because the suit was filed too late.

Harry, who now lives in California, was not present in court but watched the proceedings via video link, his lawyer David Sherborne said.

In 2012, the UK arm of Murdoch's newspaper group published an unreserved apology for widespread phone hacking of journalists from the News of the World newspaper, which the media mogul closed in the wake of the scandal.

However, he has always denied any illegal activity by the Sun, whose editor-in-chief at the time was Rebecca Brooks, who is now chief executive of its UK arm, News UK.

She has always denied knowledge of phone hacking and was found not guilty in the 2014 case.

Prince Harry appeared in court in the phone hacking case

Last week, Murdoch's Fox Corporation settled a US defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, but media reports say that amount pales in comparison to the money involved in the British phone hacking scandal.

In 2021, the Press Gazette media publication estimated that phone hacking cost NGN more than $1.24 billion, and in its reports for last year, the press group announced that it may have to spend at least another $125 million. dollar.

The current case is one of four that Harry has brought against British tabloids.

Prince Harry

Prince William

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