LONDON — Prince Harry settled a long-running phone hacking lawsuit Friday against the Mirror tabloid, winning “substantial” costs and vowing to continue his “mission” to change Britain’s unruly tabloid press.
He also took a swipe at Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, who he claimed “knew perfectly well what was going on.”
The settlement comes two months after a High Court judge ruled that Harry was the victim of phone hacking and other unlawful media practices by Mirror Group Newspapers — the publisher of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. That case went to trial, with Harry testifying in the witness box — a highly unusual thing for a high-ranking royal to do. Harry, the Duke of Sussex, spoke about how he struggled to trust anyone after journalists hacked his phone. In December, he was awarded $179,600 in damages.
But that judgment considered only 33 out of 148 submitted newspaper articles, from 1996 to 2010.
The other 115 articles were not considered as part of that trial — and Harry vowed to fight on. His legal team said Friday that the Mirror group “finally conceded” the rest of his claim.
“Everything we said was happening at Mirror group was in fact happening, and indeed far worse, as the court ruled in its extremely damning judgment,” Harry said in a statement read outside London’s High Court by his lawyer David Sherborne.
Morgan, who edited the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He hit back at Harry’s comments, saying in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I totally agree with Prince Harry that ruthless intrusion into the private lives of the Royal Family for financial gain is utterly reprehensible… and I hope he stops doing it.”
Harry was not in London — he made a transatlantic dash to Britain earlier this week to see his father, King Charles III, after the king’s surprise cancer diagnosis. He met with Charles for less than an hour and reportedly did not meet with his estranged brother, Prince William. The British press had a field day, painting a picture of a family divided.
Sherborne said that Harry won “substantial” damages, including an interim payment of $505,000 to be made in the next two weeks.
A spokesman for Mirror Group Newspapers said: “We are 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.”