Prince Harry returned to court as Liz Hurley spoke out on 'devastating' phone hacking allegations
Liz Hurley is one of seven people, including the Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, suing the publisher over allegations of unlawful information gathering
The Duke of Sussex returned to a court in London as actress Liz Hurley shared her devastation over the allegation that her home landlines were tapped.
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Hurley is one of seven people, including the Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, suing the publisher over allegations of unlawful information gathering (UIG).
Harry returned to the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday morning, a day after giving his evidence, before leaving the building shortly before 12.45pm.
Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) strongly denies wrongdoing and is defending the claims.
The alleged unlawful information gathering in Hurley’s case relates to 15 articles between 2002 and 2011.
In her witness statement, she said the allegation that her home landlines had been tapped “devastated” her.
Read more: King leaves London with no Harry reunion on day of Duke’s emotional evidence
She said in her written evidence: “The Mail’s unlawful acts against me involve landline tapping my phones and recording my live telephone conversations, placing surreptitious mics on my home windows, stealing my medical information when I was pregnant with Damian and other monstrous, staggering things."
Hurley continued: “Above all, it was the discovery that The Mail had tapped the landlines of my home phones and tape recorded my live telephone conversations that devastated me.
“I had not come across this brutal invasion of privacy in either of my two battles with the other newspapers. I felt crushed. It represented the ultimate violation of privacy.”
She added: “There’s a vast difference – both indefensible – between someone intercepting a voicemail and someone listening in on every single phone call in your home and concealing a tape recorder and attaching it to your home BT wire to record your live telephone conversations.
“I was seething when I discovered the Mail did this to me.”
Giving evidence for around two hours on Wednesday, the duke appeared emotional as he told the court on Wednesday that ANL had made his wife Meghan’s life “an absolute misery”.
Answering questions from his barrister, David Sherborne, about how the proceedings had made him feel, the duke said: “It’s fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability.
“It’s a horrible experience.”
Sounding emotional and appearing to be on the verge of tears, he continued: “They continue to come after me, they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery, my Lord.”
In court, the duke said the case against ANL felt like a “recurring traumatic experience” and a “repeat of the past”, adding: “I have never believed that my life is open season to be commercialised by these people.”
The alleged unlawful information gathering in the duke’s case relates to 14 articles between 2001 and 2013.
In written submissions for the trial, Antony White KC, for ANL, said the publisher “strongly denies” that there was any unlawful information gathering, including voicemail interception, directed at the duke.
He continued that the articles “were sourced entirely legitimately from information variously provided by contacts of the journalists responsible, including individuals in the Duke of Sussex’s social circle, press officers and publicists, freelance journalists, photographers and prior reports”.
In court on Tuesday, Mr White said that the claims against the publisher were “threadbare” and had been brought too late.
He continued that journalists at the organisation provide a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing” of the more than 50 articles that are alleged to be the products of unlawful information gathering, including from the “leaky” social circles of the celebrities’ friends.
During his evidence on Wednesday, the duke denied having “leaky” social circles, as he insisted he was unable to complain about press coverage because of the royal institution.
In a frosty exchange between Harry and lawyers acting on behalf of ANL, the duke told the High Court: “My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.”