The beginning of the trial promoted by the prince henry against the Australian tycoon’s media group Rupert Murdoch whom he accuses of illegal practices to access his privacy, was delayed at the request of the lawyers of the son of Charles III.
The judge accepted the lawyers’ request to delay the start, at least until the afternoon, of a trial against the tabloids that was to begin in the morning.
Los Enrique’s lawyers They required this delay to “continue talks,” without offering further details.
This step sparked speculation about an eventual financial agreement with the publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN)just as hundreds of complainants did previously.
The trial against the Duke of Sussex’s tabloids
The prince, 40, accuses NGN of illegal practices to access his privacy, between 1996 and 2011, which the publisher denies.
The youngest son of King Charles III, in a trial that should last several weeks, accuses, among other things, News of the Worldwhich ceased publication in 2011, The Sun, to use detectives to obtain information about his private life.
Enrique, Duke of Sussex, who lives with his family in California, in the United States, for five years, and who cited fleeing media harassment as one of the reasons for the move, had to testify in this trial at the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, in London.
The trial against the editorial group It also has as plaintiff Tom Watsonwho had a position of responsibility in the ruler Labor Party and who now occupies a seat in the House of Lords.
Both accuse the tabloids of use illegal techniques of news gathering about them more than a decade ago, and that NGN executives covered it up by deleting emails.
Previous trials of Prince Henry
Prince Harry achieved a major victory against the tabloid press in 2023 by obtaining the conviction of the editor of the Daily Mirror for articles resulting from phone hacking.
When he testified in 2023 against Mirror Group Newspapers, editor del Daily Mirror, He became the first member of the royal family to testify at a trial in over a hundred years.
The judge Timothy Fancourtwho also intervened in the trial against NGN, ruled in his favor on that occasion.
The process that was due to begin on Tuesday before the High Court in London does not refer to telephone tapping, since Fancourt considered that the deadline to act on this point had passed.
The british press was rocked in the late 2000s by the revelation of several illegal wiretapping scandals.
The group of Rupert Murdoch He apologized for illegal practices at the News of the World, which he had hastily closed in 2011, but rejected the existence of similar actions at The Sun and denied any attempt to cover up the scandal.
Since then, some 1,300 plaintiffs They have reached out-of-court agreements with this media group.
According to British media, NGN has paid around 1 billion pounds (about 1.2 billion dollars), avoiding any trial so far.
Henry’s older brother, and heir to the throne, prince williamis among those who have opted for this type of agreement in recent years, just like the actor Hugh Grant.
The latter explained that a lawsuit would have cost him 10 million pounds ($12.2 million) in legal costs, even if he had won.
In addition to the several lawsuits which he has presented in recent years against these media for obtaining information illegally, the prince accuses those newspapers of having mistreated his wife. Meghan Markle which contributed to the couple’s departure to the United States in 2020.
He also considers them guilty of the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car accident in 1997 in Paris, when she was chased by paparazzi.