Prince Harry Settles Mirror Group Hacking Suit, Slams Piers Morgan

Prince Harry has agreed to a £400,000 (about $505,000) settlement with a British tabloid publisher found guilty last year of improper snooping into his personal life, the BBC reports.

The sum covers legal costs, as well as the initial £140,600 in damages Harry was awarded when the ruling against Mirror Group Newspapers was handed down last December. In the ruling, a judge found that Mirror Group’s papers — including The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror, and The Sunday People — had engaged in “unlawful information gathering” tactics, like hacking Harry’s phone or intercepting his voicemails. 

After the hearing on Friday, Feb. 9, Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, shared a statement on behalf of the royal. “Everything we said was happening at Mirror group was in fact happening, and indeed far worse as the court ruled in its extremely damning judgement,” it read. 

Harry also appeared to urge the police to open a criminal investigation into The Mirror, saying, “We call again for the authorities to uphold the rule of law and to prove that no one is above it.” 

And Harry’s statement flatly called out noted U.K. journalist/broadcaster and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Harry said that “as editor,” Morgan “knew perfectly well what was going on, as the judge held. Even his own employer realized it simply could not call him as a witness of truth at the trial. His contempt for the court’s ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgement.” 

A rep for Morgan did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

In a statement of its own, the Mirror Group said it was “pleased to have reached this agreement, which gives our business further clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago and for which we have apologized.”

Harry’s case against the Mirror Group centered around 33 articles published between 1995 and 2011, which his lawyers submitted as evidence that his phone had been hacked. Ultimately, the judge ruled that 15 of those articles, published between 2003 and 2009, “were the product of phone hacking” or other unlawful tactics. He added that Harry’s phone was likely “hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper.”

Harry is involved in two other similar lawsuits: One against the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun, and the other against Associated Newspapers Limited, which publishes the Daily Mail (that suit also includes Elton John, David Furnish, and Liz Hurley). Harry was also suing Associated Newspapers for libel over a Feb. 2022 incident, but he dropped that suit last month following an unfavorable pre-trail ruling in December.

Prince Harry has agreed to a £400,000 (about $505,000) settlement with a British tabloid publisher found guilty last year of improper snooping into his personal life, the BBC reports.

The sum covers legal costs, as well as the initial £140,600 in damages Harry was awarded when the ruling against Mirror Group Newspapers was handed down last December. In the ruling, a judge found that Mirror Group’s papers — including The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror, and The Sunday People — had engaged in “unlawful information gathering” tactics, like hacking Harry’s phone or intercepting his voicemails. 

After the hearing on Friday, Feb. 9, Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, shared a statement on behalf of the royal. “Everything we said was happening at Mirror group was in fact happening, and indeed far worse as the court ruled in its extremely damning judgement,” it read. 

Harry also appeared to urge the police to open a criminal investigation into The Mirror, saying, “We call again for the authorities to uphold the rule of law and to prove that no one is above it.” 

And Harry’s statement flatly called out noted U.K. journalist/broadcaster and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Harry said that “as editor,” Morgan “knew perfectly well what was going on, as the judge held. Even his own employer realized it simply could not call him as a witness of truth at the trial. His contempt for the court’s ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgement.” 

A rep for Morgan did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

In a statement of its own, the Mirror Group said it was “pleased to have reached this agreement, which gives our business further clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago and for which we have apologized.”

Harry’s case against the Mirror Group centered around 33 articles published between 1995 and 2011, which his lawyers submitted as evidence that his phone had been hacked. Ultimately, the judge ruled that 15 of those articles, published between 2003 and 2009, “were the product of phone hacking” or other unlawful tactics. He added that Harry’s phone was likely “hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper.”

Harry is involved in two other similar lawsuits: One against the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Group Newspapers, which publishes The Sun, and the other against Associated Newspapers Limited, which publishes the Daily Mail (that suit also includes Elton John, David Furnish, and Liz Hurley). Harry was also suing Associated Newspapers for libel over a Feb. 2022 incident, but he dropped that suit last month following an unfavorable pre-trail ruling in December.