Prince Harry is disclosing some royal family secrets in new court filings. Prince William got a “very large sum of money in 2020” from Rupert Murdoch’s British media firm, according to documents provided by the prince’s legal team on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported. Although the precise sum wasn’t disclosed, William received the cash to resolve allegations of phone hacking.
In Harry’s lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN), owned by Rupert Murdoch, the compensation was made public. The prince claims that between the mid-1990s and 2016, the business committed illegal conduct on behalf of The Sun and the defunct News of the World tabloid, including hacking his voicemails. Currently, hearings are being undertaken to decide if the matter should be tried in court.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that the claimant had to reveal the specifics of this covert agreement in order to respond to NGN’s attempt to stop his claims from going to trial, in addition to the fact that His Royal Highness, Prince William, recently reached a settlement with NGN.
Harry asserts in the documents that the funds were a component of a covert agreement between NGN and Buckingham Palace, according to the Post, wherein the latter agreed to hold off on bringing more legal action against Murdoch’s firm until previous phone-hacking cases were resolved. Additionally, it would prevent royal family members from being required to testify in court.
NGN is now attempting to have Prince Harry’s latest lawsuit dismissed because they believe the prince waited too long to sue. Harry argues, however, that the holdup was solely caused by the covert agreement between NGN and Buckingham Palace.
Prince Harry is now involved in a variety of media-related lawsuits in addition to the conflict with NGN. He appeared in court in March over a disagreement with the Daily Mail, and he’s scheduled to testify in a case against the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror’s proprietor, which is also connected to claims of phone hacking, next month. It remains to be seen whether the event will be more dramatic; that case is set to start just after King Charles III is crowned.