Prince William was 'completely unaware Prince Harry planned to reveal phone hacking payout until it was made public'
26 April 2023, 05:46 | Updated: 26 April 2023, 06:45
Prince William was "completely unaware" his brother planned to reveal details of an alleged secret phone hacking payout until it was made public, insiders have claimed.
Prince William was given the "very large" secret payout by Rupert Murdoch's media business to settle a phone-hacking claim, according to court filings.
It is claimed William was given the sum in 2020 following a legal claim made against the owner of the Sun and the News of the World.
According to Prince Harry, the '£1 million' payment shows the existence of a "secret agreement" between the royals and News Group Newspapers (NGN), which came about partly in an attempt to rehabilitate the Queen, The Telegraph reported.
The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993 when the Sun and another tabloid had unlawfully obtained and published details of an intimate telephone conversation that took place between my father and stepmother in 1989, while he was still married to my mother
The claims, which were made by the Duke of Sussexes lawyers, will have surprised Prince William and the rest of the royals, who were not aware the claims had been made until they went public.
It has reportedly made the chance of rapprochement at King Charles' Coronation next week extremely unlikely, according to those close to both Harry and William.
Read More: Prince William 'given very large secret phone hacking payout by Rupert Murdoch's media company'
Prince Harry claims the "secret agreement" came about as his family did not want a repeat of the situation where details of sensitive voicemail messages between then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles emerged in 1980.
Harry's legal filings claim: "The reason for this was to avoid the situation where a member of the royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted by [the News of the World royal reporter] Clive Goodman.
"The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993 when the Sun and another tabloid had unlawfully obtained and published details of an intimate telephone conversation that took place between my father and stepmother in 1989, while he was still married to my mother."
Prince Harry also claimed his bid to get an apology from Rupert Murdoch was blocked so Charles and Camilla would be accepted as King and Queen Consort by the public - despite the late Queen backing him.
As part of his lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN), which publishes The Sun, Harry claimed he wanted to "push for a resolution to our phone hacking claims" and have Mr Murdoch say sorry.
The late Queen gave him her blessing to proceed, as did William, in late 2017, the duke claims.
But Clarence House intervened because it wanted to keep the press onside to ensure Charles would be accepted as King and Camilla would be positively received as Queen Consort, he alleges.
He is suing NGN, which used to publish the now-defunct News of the World, over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.
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