Prince William was paid a “very large sum of money” by Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper business to settle a phone-hacking claim, the High Court has heard.
The Prince of Wales allegedly received the secret payment after bringing a case against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the owners of The Sun and the now defunct News of the World.
Details of the settlement, which William allegedly received in 2020, were revealed on Tuesday in court documents submitted by William’s brother, Prince Harry, who is suing NGN over alleged unlawful information-gathering at its titles.
David Sherborne, representing Harry, also disclosed that there had been an earlier “secret agreement”, approved by the Queen, that the royal family would not pursue claims against the publisher until the conclusion of a series of phone-hacking cases.
It was also revealed that Harry had felt that the tabloids “owned” him, and that he had attempted to block journalists from attending his wedding to Meghan Markle until he received an apology from NGN over phone-hacking.
In a witness statement made public on Tuesday, Harry said: “I remember speaking to my brother and saying something along the lines of ‘enough of this, I want to get permission to push for a resolution to our phone hacking claims and a formal apology from Murdoch before any of his people are allowed anywhere near the wedding’, or words to that effect.”
However, he accused Clarence House of “seemingly blocking our every move” as part of a strategy to keep the media “onside in order to smooth the way for my stepmother, and father, to be accepted by the British public as Queen Consort and King respectively”.
He said despite “my grandmother having given her consent”, there was “very little support” from the Queen’s private secretary as well as Buckingham Palace and Clarence House staff.
In his witness statement, Harry, who did not find out about the deal until 2012, alleged that it was agreed that the royals would bring claims at the end of a series of cases about phone-hacking, which would be resolved without trial.
He said that the royal family wanted to avoid any further public embarrassment following the earlier publication of a recording of a call, obtained by The Sun, between the then Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles while they were having an affair in 1989.
In relation to the secret agreement, the filing states: “The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993 when The Sun and another tabloid had unlawfully obtained and published details of an intimate telephone conversation that took place between my father and stepmother in 1989, while he was still married to my mother.
“This agreement, including the promises from NGN for delayed resolution was, obviously, a major factor as to why no claim was brought by me at that time.”
Mr Sherborne told the High Court that the apology Harry had wanted from NGN was “filibustered” until 2019, and by this time the Duke of Sussex had decided to launch legal proceedings.
Mr Sherborne said in written submissions that the royal family’s “discussions and authorisation” of the agreement involved the late Queen and two of her private secretaries, as well as private secretaries for both William and Harry.
However, Anthony Hudson KC, for NGN, said the duke’s allegation that there was a secret agreement is “flatly inconsistent” with other parts of his case.
Mr Hudson said that Harry has a “belated reliance on the asserted, unpleaded secret agreement between the institution and NGN”. He continued: “This delay is matched by the extreme vagueness with which the circumstances of the secret agreement are described in the Duke of Sussex’s evidence.”
The barrister said Harry did not say in his evidence who had made the agreement, to whom it applied, or when it was made, and that he had not provided a date when it was meant to expire.
Also revealed in the court documents was Harry’s concern that the tabloid press was a “third party” in all of his relationships.
“At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately ruining it, or trying to ruin it, using whatever unlawful means at their disposal,” he said in a witness statement.
He also said that he was often “playing up” to the unflattering headlines or the perception that he was a “cheat” or a “thicko”.
“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”
He said that the tabloids hoped for him to undergo a “total and very public breakdown”.
“Despite them all knowing about what I was dealing with throughout the years, they kept on doubling down their efforts rather than letting up,” he said. “That is grotesque and sadistic – and no doubt they were hoping for a total and very public breakdown.”
On Tuesday, NGN asked the judge to throw out the case, as well as a similar claim brought against the publisher by actor Hugh Grant. The hearing is expected to last for three days, and the judge will determine whether the claims will progress to a trial, due to be heard in January.
The hacking scandal led to the closure of News of the World in 2011, and has resulted in NGN settling dozens of claims with celebrities.
News UK has previously admitted that hacking took place at News of the World, but has always maintained that there was none at The Sun.
It comes just days after Fox News, another Murdoch media brand, settled with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation charges, after the news channel claimed that the company had rigged its voting machines against the then US president Donald Trump in 2020.
The claim against NGN is one of a number of legal actions being brought by the duke, who is an outspoken critic of the British press and has hit out at previous tabloid coverage in television interviews, and in his memoir, Spare.
Harry appeared in person at the High Court last month for a preliminary hearing against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
The Duke of Sussex is also one of a number of high-profile figures bringing damages claims against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over alleged unlawful information-gathering at its titles.
His case claims that 148 articles published between 1996 and 2010 included information allegedly obtained through unlawful means, including phone-hacking.
MGN is contesting the claims, arguing that some have been brought too late.
Kensington Palace declined to comment on behalf of the Prince of Wales on the matter of the secret settlement.
