By Le Figaro with AFP
Published
yesterday at 3:27 p.m.,
Update yesterday at 4:25 p.m.
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The British actor had been suing the newspaper for almost a year for illegal collection of information. With the case scheduled to go to trial in January 2025, a financial agreement was reached between the two parties.
British actor Hugh Grant reaches financial deal with tabloid publisher The Sun that he was suing for “illegal collection of information”, he announced on Wednesday, claiming to have been offered “a huge amount of money”.
Hugh Grant, aged 63, was suing Sunwhose publisher NGN has rejected any illegal process, for “phone hacking, illegal collection of information, phone tapping”, recalled the actor on social networks. He also accuses him of burglarizing his apartment and bugging his car. NGN “claims to be completely innocent”wrote the actor. “As is often the case with completely innocent people, (the company) is offering me a huge sum of money to keep this case from going to court.”, he added, ironically. The case was scheduled to go to trial in January 2025.
At a preliminary hearing Wednesday, NGN’s lawyer, Anthony Hudson, indicated that an agreement had been reached “recently”. The agreement “was done without acknowledgment of responsibility”added an NGN spokesperson. “It is in the financial interest of both parties not to initiate a costly trial”.
Hugh Grant said he would have liked to go to trial. But due to the rules governing civil trials, he explains that he would have had to pay the legal costs of both parties, if the court awarded him damages lower than the amount proposed by NGN. However, the lawyers of NGN, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire, “are very expensive”he added, citing an amount of almost 10 million pounds sterling (11.7 million euros).
The actor said he would donate the money to groups denouncing “the worst excesses of our press owned by the oligarchs”. Among these groups is Hacked Off, of which he is a board member.
Prince Harry, youngest son of King Charles III, has initiated similar proceedings against NGN. The trial is scheduled for January 2025. Harry has launched several legal proceedings targeting the methods of certain British media. In February, his lawyer announced a settlement with the tabloid’s publisher Daily Mirror , MGN, to put an end to prosecutions for illegal collection of information. Harry got a “substantial amount”, said his lawyer, without revealing the amount of the transaction. Exiled in the United States, Harry, 39, feels stubborn resentment towards the tabloid press, which he holds responsible for the death of his mother Lady Di, killed in a car accident in Paris in 1997.
