‘A very large sum’: Prince Harry makes explosive claims about huge …
Prince William was secretly paid "a very large sum" by a UK-based media business in a secret deal struck with Buckingham Palace, according to lawyers for Prince Harry. The explosive claims were made amid a lawsuit brought by King Charles' youngest son against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN), which is currently taking place in London. Prince Harry alleges The Sun and News of the World tabloids committed multiple unlawful acts, including phone-hacking and obtaining private information about him by deception, from the mid-1990s until 2016.
NGN, which publishes tabloid newspaper The Sun and formerly the now-defunct News of the World, has argued the Prince's lawsuit should be thrown out by the court because the claims were brought too late. In response, lawyers for Prince Harry have argued the royal was unable to pursue legal action any earlier, due to the deal between the palace and the news organisation. Prince Harry claims a deal was struck in 2012 between the palace and senior executives at NGN following legal proceedings launched by Prince William.
The deal resulted in proceedings against the media company being delayed until other outstanding phone-hacking litigation was settled. An apology to the princes for the alleged illegal activity was also said to have been promised. The Duke of Sussex claimed the palace was happy to make the compromise in order to avoid members of the royal family being forced to sit in the witness box and recount the details of private voicemails that had allegedly been intercepted.
"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 court filings state. "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."
However, Prince Harry claims the news organisation failed to uphold their part of the deal, with an apology never given despite the royal's attempts to arrange meetings with senior executives at News UK. The Prince of Wales is said to have received payment from the news organisation in 2020, which was previously undisclosed.
NGN has insisted there was no secret agreement between Buckingham Palace and the organisation, and has always maintained phone hacking never took place at The Sun.