When Prince Harry dropped his lawsuit against News Corp (NGN) and the British newspapers The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World last week, he received an apology and "a large economic compensation".
Hugh Grant is not surprised.
They have spent a billion pounds to ensure that this never reaches court, he said on Friday to BBC.
I believe they are terrified that what would come out would lead to a criminal investigation.
And it is precisely criminal investigations where the police go through the cases he wants to see to get to "the whole truth". When the allegations become civil lawsuits, NGN can in practice buy their way out.
This is what they have done over the past ten years, says Grant, who for over a decade has been one of the foremost critics of the British tabloids and their alleged illegal methods.
Like Prince Harry, he has accused the tabloids of hacking his phone over a long period of time.
Grant himself reached a settlement with The Sun and NGN last year after his allegations. He said he agreed to the settlement due to the British rules in civil lawsuits.
For even if Grant had won, he risked having to pay the court costs for both parties – if he was awarded compensation that was less than the sum he was offered in the settlement.
Grant stated last year that he therefore risked costs of up to ten million pounds. But he promised not to give up the fight.
"(Rupert) Murdoch's money stinks and I refuse to let this silence me", he wrote on X.
Martin Yngve/TT
Facts: The Hacking Scandal
TT
The hacking scandal in the British press broke out in 2011 when it was revealed that several newspapers had managed to hack into celebrities' and crime victims' mobile phone voicemails and used the information in articles for nearly 20 years.
In the aftermath of the scandal, Rupert Murdoch was forced to shut down the newspaper News of the World.
