Recently filed court documents have shed light on a secret payment made by Rupert Murdoch to Prince William, the Prince of Wales, to settle a phone-hacking claim. The undisclosed amount, reported to be a substantial sum, was made in 2020 as a resolution to Prince William’s legal claim against the owner of The Sun and The News of the World.
The revelation of the secret payment and Prince Harry’s involvement in the legal proceedings have added new dimensions to the ongoing legal saga involving Murdoch’s media business and the British royal family. These details were revealed in filings submitted by Prince Harry as part of his legal battle with the publisher, which is set to resume in the high court on Tuesday. The court documents also disclosed that Prince Harry, the younger brother of Prince William, sought an apology from Rupert Murdoch for phone hacking, and he claimed that these efforts were carried out with the approval of his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The exact nature and amount of the payment to Prince William have not been publicly disclosed, and the details remain confidential. However, the fact that a “very large sum of money” was paid to Prince William suggests the seriousness of the phone-hacking claim and the efforts to resolve it behind closed doors. The revelation of this undisclosed payment has raised questions about the extent of phone hacking by Murdoch’s media business and the potential implications for the British royal family.
Phone hacking scandal and alleged secret agreement with the Rupert Murdoch
The legal battle between Prince Harry and the publisher is part of a more considerable controversy surrounding phone hacking by Murdoch’s media business, which has been a major scandal in the United Kingdom for years. In 2011, it was revealed that The News of the World, a now-defunct tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, had engaged in illegal phone hacking of celebrities, politicians, and members of the public. The scandal resulted in criminal convictions and widespread public outrage, leading to the closure of The News of the World and subsequent legal actions against Murdoch’s media empire.
Prince Harry has claimed in court filings that there was a secret agreement between the royal family and “senior executives” at Murdoch’s company before 2012. According to Harry, as part of this alleged deal, the princes agreed to delay legal proceedings against the newspaper group in exchange for receiving an apology later.
Harry stated that this agreement was made after the “Tampongate” incident deeply affected the royal family. Several publications obtained and published a phone call between Prince Charles and Camilla that was recorded while the couple had an affair in the 1980s. The royal family was reportedly desperate to avoid a repeat of such invasive media coverage.
Allegations of a secret agreement and failure to uphold It
The court filings further state that the reason behind this agreement was to prevent a situation where a royal family member would have to testify in court and recount the private and highly sensitive voicemails that Clive Goodman, a royal reporter for The News of the World, had intercepted.
The filings state: “The reason for this was to avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted by [the News of the World royal reporter] Clive Goodman.
“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.”
Prince Harry had alleged that News UK failed to uphold its side of a secret agreement when he sought an apology in 2017. He claims meetings involving Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of Murdoch’s News UK, and Robert Thomson, the global head of News Corp, could have been more productive. As a result, Harry decided to launch legal proceedings against the publisher of the Sun and the News of the World, accusing the company of widespread illegal activity, including phone hacking and obtaining personal information.
Prince Harry’s legal battles against media groups
News Group Newspapers has denied the existence of a secret agreement and maintained no wrongdoing took place at the Sun. Brooks was found not guilty of phone hacking in 2014. A spokesperson for the company stated that the Sun does not accept liability or make any admissions to the allegations, emphasizing that many of Harry’s claims date back 20 years.
Prince Harry is currently involved in three separate legal battles against three media groups, alleging illegal activities were used to target him in the name of journalism. He recently appeared in person for his case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, with a judge currently considering whether the case should proceed to a full trial. Another trial against the publisher of the Mirror and Sunday Mirror is scheduled to start in two weeks, with Harry expected to give evidence in the witness box, breaking royal protocol.
