Prince Harry privacy case: Rupert Murdoch's tabloids offer rare apology | Key highlights of legal saga

According to Prince Harry's lawyer David Sherborne, Rupert Murdoch's media group offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex” for years of unlawful intrusion.

The Prince Harry privacy invasion case seems to have reached a conclusion as Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloids made a rare apology to the member of the UK royal family. The apology comes as part of the settlement of the privacy invasion lawsuit. Murdoch also agreed to pay him a substantial sum.

Harry's lawyer David Sherborne said the media group offers a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex”, accepting unlawful intrusion for years.

The bombshell announcement in London's High Court as the Duke of Sussex's trial was about to start against the publishers of The Sun and now-defunct News of the World for unlawfully snooping on him over decades.

Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, and one other man were the only two remaining claimants out of more than 1,300 others who had settled lawsuits against News Group Newspapers over allegations their phones were hacked and investigators unlawfully intruded in their lives. In all the cases that have been brought against the publisher since a widespread phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to close News of the World in 2011, Harry's case got the closest to trial.

 Prince Harry's lawsuit is part of long saga of alleged tabloid misbehaviour

Prince Harry's trial against the publisher of The Sun, which opens Tuesday, follows two decades of legal drama over the cutthroat practices of the British press in the days when newspapers sold millions of copies and shaped the popular conversation.

Here are major controversies

• November 2005: Murdoch's Sunday tabloid the News of the World reports that Prince William has a knee injury. A Buckingham Palace complaint prompts a police inquiry that reveals information for the story came from a voicemail that was hacked.
• January 2007: Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World, is sentenced to six months in prison and the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman to four months for hacking the phones of royal aides to listen to messages left by William and others. Goodman later acknowledges hacking William's phone 35 times and that of his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton — now Princess of Wales — more than 150 times. Murdoch's company initially maintains that the illicit behavior was the work of two rogue employees working without editors' knowledge.
• January 2011: British police reopen an investigation into tabloid phone hacking after the News of the World says it has found “significant new information.”
• April 2011: The News of the World admits liability for phone hacking. The following month, it agrees to pay actress Sienna Miller 100,000 pounds to settle a hacking lawsuit. Since then, Murdoch's News Corp. has paid to settle claims by scores of celebrities, politicians, athletes and others against both the News of the World and its sister tabloid, The Sun – though it has never accepted liability for hacking by The Sun.
• July 2011: The Guardian newspaper reports that News of the World journalists hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl, while police were searching for her in 2002. The revelation causes public outrage, and prompts Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World.
• November 2012: A judge-led inquiry into media ethics ordered by then-Prime Minister David Cameron concludes that “outrageous” behavior by some in the press had “wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people whose rights and liberties have been disdained.” Judge Brian Leveson recommends the creation of a strong press watchdog, backed by government regulation. His findings have only been partially implemented.
• October 2013: Former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks go on trial alongside several other defendants at London's Central Criminal Court on charges of phone hacking and illegal payments to officials. After an eight-month trial, Coulson is convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Brooks is acquitted. She is now chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper business.
• December 2015: England's chief prosecutor says there will be no more criminal cases against Murdoch's UK. company or its employees, or against 10 people under investigation from the rival Mirror Group Newspapers, including former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan. Both companies continue to pay to settle hacking lawsuits.
• 2019-onwards: Prince Harry launches lawsuits against three newspaper groups – Murdoch's News Group, the Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers. He claims stories about his schooldays, teenage shenanigans and relationships with girlfriends were obtained by hacking, bugging, deception or other forms of illegal intrusion. 
• February 2021: Harry's wife Meghan wins an invasion of privacy lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over publication of a letter she wrote in 2018 to her estranged father.
• June 2023: Harry testifies in his case against the Mirror Group, becoming the first British royal in more than a century to appear in the witness box.
• December 2023: Harry wins his case against the Mirror Group when a judge rules that Mirror newspapers had hired private investigators to snoop for personal information and engaged in illegal phone hacking for well over a decade. He is awarded legal costs and 140,000 pounds in damages.
• February 2024: The Mirror Group agrees to pay Harry legal costs and undisclosed damages to settle outstanding claims. Harry says he is vindicated and vows: “Our mission continues.” 

(With AP inputs)