What’s the deal between Prince William and Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids?

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Prince William, heir to the British throne, announced this year’s finalists for his Earthshot environmental prize in New York yesterday. They included a Peruvian reforestation project, a Polish clean air campaign and a Hong Kong battery recycling scheme. 

So what? Each of five winners gets $1 million. Most of the money comes from deep-pocketed benefactors known for championing environmental causes. Some of it might come from somewhere else.

Such as? One source could be the proceeds of a privacy claim brought by William against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which used to include the now-defunct News of the World as well as the Sun. According to a close associate of William’s brother Prince Harry, the claim was settled out of court for “£1 million or more”. 

The settlement is thought to revolve around phone hacking and is the subject of this week’s Slow Newscast from Tortoise. Its terms remain secret, meaning Britain’s next head of state is locked into a confidential, private contract with a powerful media empire.

Most claims related to phone-hacking and the use of private investigators against News Group Newspapers have been settled with standard terms that release the publisher from further liability, make no admission of liability at the Sun, and pay damages and legal costs.

When asked whether William’s settlement terms go beyond the standard ones, his communications secretary declined to comment. A spokesperson for News Group Newspapers declined to comment for confidentiality reasons. Neither denied the settlement’s existence.

The allegations. As William’s claim never went to court, the allegations he put to News Group Newspapers are not public. But Harry’s court filings in his case against the publisher provide a sense of the alleged intrusion of its tabloids into his brother’s private life. The filings itemise

• 104 items of call data for William between January and July 2006 that appear to be consistent with attempts to hack into his voicemail; and
• two private investigator invoices addressed to the Sun and naming William as their subjects.

In the court filings, Harry’s lawyers give these details as part of a non-exhaustive list of alleged intrusions connected to his own life. William will likely have known of many more – and presented them in legal letters to News Group Newspapers.

The money. According to a barrister who has worked on numerous phone hacking claims against News Group Newspapers, a settlement of £1 million or more is not unprecedented – but it is unusually high. 

This suggests that the allegations William put to the publisher were serious and well-evidence and/or the resulting settlement terms are worth paying for – ie. not standard.

A lawyer involved in Harry’s case against News Group Newspapers says William’s settlement likely went to charity. William and his wife Kate run the Royal Foundation, a charity that raises money for causes they support.

The charity’s financial accounts for 2020, when William is alleged to have settled, reveal a grant from a “certain funder” to be split as follows:

• £750,000 for the Earthshot Prize, William’s environmental initiative, which is now a separate charity.
• £340,000 for the Early Years programme, which is his wife Kate’s cherished educational programme.

Asked to comment on whether this charitable grant, totalling £1,090,000, came from William’s settlement with a company owned by Murdoch, a climate-change sceptic, his communications secretary said it was “conjecture,” “unsubstantiated,” and “speculation”.

Time, perhaps, for the royal family to consider the merits of greater transparency, and for parliament to demand it.