Britain's Prince William settled a phone-hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper arm in 2020 for a "very large sum" after a secret deal struck with Buckingham Palace, lawyers for the heir's brother Prince Harry have alleged in court documents.
Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) at the High Court in London for multiple unlawful acts allegedly committed on behalf of its Sun and now-defunct News of the World tabloids from the mid-1990s until 2016.
He accuses those acting for the papers of phone-hacking and obtaining private information about him by deception, including his wife Meghan Markle's social security number.
NGN, which has paid out millions after a number of journalists at the News of the World were jailed for phone-hacking leading to Murdoch closing it down, is seeking to have Prince's Harry claim dismissed, arguing he should have brought it sooner.
It also denies anyone from The Sun was involved in any unlawful activity.
In a submission on his behalf, Prince Harry's legal team alleged that a deal had been agreed between NGN and the "institution" - Buckingham Palace - to hold off any claims until other outstanding phone-hacking litigation was settled.
"It is important to bear in mind that in responding to this bid by NGN to prevent his claims going to trial, the claimant has had to make public the details of this secret agreement, as well as the fact that his brother, His Royal Highness, Prince William, has recently settled his claim against NGN behind the scenes," the document alleged.
It alleged that NGN had settled with Prince William "for a very large sum of money in 2020".
The document quoted from Prince Harry's witness statement in which the prince alleged that the deal was struck 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".
Prince Harry alleged that Buckingham Palace "wanted to avoid at all costs" the reputational damage caused by the publication in the 1990s of details of an "intimate telephone conversation" between his father and the now-Queen Consort Camilla when King Charles was still married to Prince Harry's mother Princess Diana.
As part of a chronology detailing an exchange of letters between the Palace and NGN, the document alleged that Prince Harry's grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, had been involved in discussions and in 2017 had given her permission for him to pursue his case.
Kensington Palace declined to comment on behalf of the Prince of Wales.
The hearing is expected to last three days and the judge will determine whether the claims will progress to a trial, which is due to be heard in January next year.
The claim is one of a number of legal actions currently being brought by Prince Harry, who appeared in person at the High Court in London last month for a preliminary hearing against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publisher of The Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
Prince Harry is bringing two separate legal actions against ANL, one over The Mail on Sunday's coverage of his judicial review against the Home Office about his security arrangements for his family when they are visiting the UK.
The other is over alleged unlawful information gathering at ANL titles, which is being brought alongside other high-profile figures including Elton John.
Hearings took place last month in both of Prince Harry's legal actions against ANL and rulings are awaited in each.
He is also expected to give evidence at a trial over allegations of unlawful information against tabloid publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), due to begin next month, with Prince Harry due to appear in court in June.
The publisher of titles including The Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People, MGN has previously settled a number of claims against it in relation to unlawful information gathering, as has NGN.
Source: Reuters, Press Association
