On Tuesday, Hugh Grant announced that he had settled his hacking lawsuit against The Sun. He explained what happened in a lengthy Twitter thread – The Sun’s lawyers made him a substantial settlement offer and Grant was basically handcuffed by the British civil litigation laws. Meaning, if he didn’t take the settlement and the case went to trial, there would have been a very good chance that Grant could have won the trial and yet still owed $10 million-plus in his own legal fees and The Sun’s legal fees. Grant pointed out that this is the consistent methodology of News Group Newspapers: they make generous settlement offers to keep all of their dirtiest deeds from coming out in court and if their victims demand to go to trial, victims find themselves getting screwed over by a legal system set up to protect the criminal behavior of the press. Something similar happened with Sienna Miller as well.
Throughout the whole Hack-gate scandal and the past five years of lawsuits, it’s always been said that Prince Harry was uniquely positioned to take his fight against the press to trial. But now Harry’s lawyer David Sherbourne is saying that News Group Newspapers has also made a settlement offer to Harry.
Prince Harry could be ‘forced’ to settle his High Court case against The Sun because of concerns over a huge legal bill, even if he wins. David Sherborne, lawyer for the Duke of Sussex, said his client faced an ‘impossible’ threat of high legal costs by continuing the case.
Harry and actor Hugh Grant are among dozens of stars who sued over their private information allegedly being stolen by The Sun. Yesterday, at a pre-trial hearing, the High Court was told Grant, 63, had agreed a settlement and was no longer involved in the case. The star later stressed on social media he had ‘had to’ settle – to avoid the risk of a possible ‘£10million’ legal bill. In 2021, actress Sienna Miller agreed a similar deal. She said that even if she had won, her costs would have run to millions had she rejected the offer to settle.
Harry is among 42 remaining individuals still suing The Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers for allegedly snooping on their private information, which it strenuously denies.
Yesterday Harry’s lawyer told the court: ‘The Duke of Sussex is subject to the same issues that Sienna Miller and Hugh Grant have been subjected to – that offers have been made [to settle] that makes it impossible for them to go ahead.’
Grant later said he hadn’t wanted to settle but added: ‘The rules around civil litigation mean that if I proceed to trial, and the court awards me damages that are even a penny less than the settlement offer, I would have to pay the legal costs of both sides.’ NGN has always rejected allegations of any wrongdoing by staff at The Sun.
“NGN has always rejected allegations of any wrongdoing by staff at The Sun” – yes, that’s why they’re apparently making seven-figure out-of-court settlements with celebrities they never, ever hacked or stalked or committed crimes against. As for Harry, keep in mind that he just scored a major victory back in December against the Mirror Group, and after that court win, Harry accepted a significant settlement for the rest of his hacking claims again the Mirror. The Sun was looking at a similar scenario – that if Harry ended up taking this all the way to trial, he’ll win and they would still have to settle anyway. Anyway, it’s interesting that Sherbourne brought this up in a court hearing. Watch this space!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.