Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles, had sued News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, in the High Court in London, claiming the newspapers had illegally obtained private information about him from 1996 to 2011.
NGN also admitted to intruding into the private life of Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana.
Lawyer David Sherborne has read out a statement from Prince Harry in the Supreme Court. (AP PHOTO)
A source familiar with the settlement said the damages were in the eight-figure range.
“In a monumental victory, News UK today admitted that The Sun, the flagship title of Rupert Murdoch’s British media empire, did indeed engage in illegal practices,” Harry and co-plaintiff Tom Watson said in a statement.
“Today the lies are exposed. Today the cover-ups are being exposed. And today it is proven that no one is above the law. The time for accountability has come,” said the statement read to the Supreme Court by her lawyer David Sherborne.
The trial to review Harry’s case and a similar lawsuit from former senior MP Watson were due to begin on Tuesday, but after recent talks the two sides agreed a settlement, with NGN saying there had been misconduct at The Sun – anything there had denied for years.
“NGN fully apologizes to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion into his private life by The Sun between 1996 and 2011, including incidents of unlawful activity by private investigators working for The Sun,” Sherborne told the court.
“NGN continues to apologize to the Duke for the impact of the extensive reporting and serious intrusion into his private life and into the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, particularly in his younger years.”
It also admitted targeting Watson, including when he was a junior minister under then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who would have given evidence if the trial had taken place.
In a statement, an NGN spokesman said its apology concerned the unlawful actions of private investigators working for The Sun and not those of journalists.
“Today there are strict controls and processes in place across all of our titles to ensure this cannot happen now. There was no interception of voicemails at The Sun,” the spokesman said, adding that the settlement marked the likely end to all litigation and future cases at risk of being thrown out.
NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people with whom the company was associated or major events.
In their joint statement, Harry and Watson said NGN had paid out more than £1 billion (AUD$2 billion) in total.
NGN has consistently denied any allegations that there was wrongdoing at The Sun newspaper or that senior figures knew about it or tried to cover it up, as Harry’s lawsuit alleges.
Harry said his mission was to find out the truth and ensure publishers’ executives and editors were held to account after other plaintiffs resolved the cases to avoid the risk of a multi-million pound legal bill, which could be imposed on them even if they had won. However, the court had rejected NGN’s offer.
Harry’s main target was Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of The Sun for a time when NGN admitted the unlawful behavior and is now chief executive of News UK.
“They now admit that when she was editor of The Sun she ran a criminal enterprise,” Harry and Watson’s statement said, adding they wanted the police and Parliament “to investigate perjury and “investigate the cover-ups”.
However, NGN’s apology made no direct reference to any misconduct by its senior executives or to allegations that there had been cover-ups by current or former executives.
