The Daily Beast’s Royalist columnist, Tom Sykes, has always had suspiciously good sources in Prince William’s camp. For years – although not in recent months, weirdly – the Royalist has had abundant sources sharing every little detail of William’s thoughts on Prince Harry, William’s thoughts on Harry’s work, William’s thoughts on how Harry is obviously desperate to come back to the UK to be William’s doormat, and William’s thoughts on how William fantasizes daily about punishing Harry for his many perceived transgressions. Now the Royalist magically has a source spilling their guts about NGN’s settlement with Prince Harry last month. Curious, isn’t it? Especially since NGN bought William’s silence (and probably a lot more) and William regularly hands exclusives to NGN to this day. According to these sources, NGN settled with Harry for £10 million and the bulk of the settlement money is going towards Harry’s legal fees. According to these sources, Harry got played. Yes, I’m sure someone in the Windsor clan wants to believe that.
Prince Harry received just a fraction of the reported £10 million ($12.5 million) settlement he reached with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), with “75 percent” going towards his costs, and a smaller chunk to his co-defendant, Tom Watson, a source with knowledge of the matter has told The Daily Beast. Harry’s team has consistently emphasized that the “full and unequivocal” apology to Harry and his mother and NGN’s admission of criminality at the Sun were the critical factors in his decision.
Immediately after the trial, it was widely reported that Harry had walked away with an “eight-figure” settlement, suggesting he had received more than £10 million (around $12 million). While some reports noted that he would have to pay legal costs, some British media, notably that portion of it that tends to be hyper-critical of Harry, characterized the deal as Harry being bought off by the prospect of pocketing a handsome “profit.”
In fact, that is very far from the truth. The Daily Beast can now reveal that after costs, Harry could have received as little as £2 million ($2.5 million)—thought to be just a million pounds more than the sum his brother, Prince William, received from NGN in a secret 2020 deal to resolve his phone hacking claims.
A source with knowledge of the deal told The Daily Beast that “any sum being speculated on was a total sum and includes damages and costs for the two cases (Sussex and Watson) and a majority (in the region of 75%) of the total figure is provided to cover legal costs.”
Prince Harry and NGN both declined to comment. However, the revelation that Harry received a relatively paltry sum after costs may actually bolster the argument widely made by those close to him and his supporters: that what Harry really cared about was NGN’s admission of criminal activity at the Sun, which it has always denied. Sources sympathetic to Harry said that NGN’s admission of guilt was the pivotal factor in Harry accepting their offer and pointed to an article in the magazine Prospect, which said NGN’s settlement looked like “a desperate last-minute move by a publisher anxious to avoid a public trial of the claims.”
One legal source told The Daily Beast: “The amount of damages was actually settled a week before the case opened, what delayed it was the accountability issue. Harry wanted senior NGN executives who he alleged were involved in hacking and the cover up to be named but that was never going to happen. In the end what NGN did, which was a very clever piece of lawyering, was to admit to wrongdoing that was already widely known about, and not admit to the cover-up. Harry’s side has put together a file for the police about the cover-up but [a prosecution] is never going to happen because it was a long time ago and unlawful news gathering has now stopped. Millions of police hours have been spent on this and the police need to get on to ‘now’ problems —such as young men being radicalized in their bedrooms—as opposed to historic matters seen as basically affecting Prince Harry.”
This makes zero sense – a legal source claims that Harry and NGN came to an agreement on the settlement amount a week earlier, and yet there was panic when the lawyers couldn’t get in touch with Harry on the day the trial was supposed to start? NGN made only a partial capitulation at the last minute – “a very clever piece of lawyering” – because they held all the power, huh? As opposed to everything we saw unfold in real time – NGN played chicken with the ginger prince and the prince didn’t blink. He was fully prepared to drag them to hell and back in the trial and NGN (the Murdochs) decided they needed to do everything they could to keep this sh-t from coming out in open court. No, this Daily Beast story is wishful thinking on the part of the British media complex and the Windsors. The over-emphasis on William’s settlement and how Harry effectively only got double what William got… I recognize those fingerprints. I’ve seen this framing before.
Also: I still believe the reporting from that week that it was likely that any settlement would have NGN paying Harry’s legal bills separately from the settlement. I also don’t believe that NGN successfully low-balled Harry, for what it’s worth.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex meeting members of the public at Windsor Castle in Berkshire following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. Picture date: Saturday September 10, 2022.,Image: 721656879, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR 48 HOURS- Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Prince Harry departs The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Monday 27 March, 2023. He is suing the Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) in the High Court over an article published in The Mail On Sunday in February 2022 about his security arrangements in the UK.,Image: 765487574, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Prince Harry arrives at The Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Thursday 30 March, 2023. He is part of a group suing the Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) in the High Court over phone hacking allegations.,Image: 766139797, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex departs The Rolls Building – Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Wednesday 7 June, 2023 as part of the Mirror Group newspapers (MGN) phone hacking trial.,Image: 782000576, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex departs The Rolls Building – Royal Courts Of Justice in London, England, UK on Wednesday 7 June, 2023 as part of the Mirror Group newspapers (MGN) phone hacking trial.,Image: 782000626, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/UPPA/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- Royal Courts of Justice, London, UK. 7th June 2023. Prince Harry leaving the Royal Courts of Justice, with his lawyer, David Sherborne, following his second day giving testimony in the witness stand. The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages over alleged unlawful information gathering, including phone hacking and is the first senior British royal to give evidence in court for 130 years.,Image: 782000910, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Supplied by AVALON – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photo by Amanda Rose / Avalon
I’m with you here @Kaiser, I too believe the reports that NGN paid legal fees for Harry and Tom separate from damages.
So. What they are saying is ….
This wasn’t about money for Harry. He can’t be bought. This was about public acknowledgement of the wrongs done and an apology to him and to his mother.
He sounds awful. /s
Yeah, this only serves to make Harry look like the good person he is — caring less about the money, and much more about what really matters.
By sharp contrast, William settled for money. They should have paid William in pieces of silver for the way he betrayed his mother.
This is all designed to make trolls and William feel better, it is also designed to downplay his win to make others not even think of suing. NGN will pay his lawyers fee and I’m sure as hell he got way more than 10million
Oh. Absolutely. He undoubtedly got bank. And his legal fees covered.
Which is only fair as their illegal actions resulted in a lot of harm but also a huge increase in the threats to Harry and his family. This money will undoubtedly pay for security for them for years and years to come. As is only right.
I am sure what hurts W the most is Harry proving how weak he is and Harry getting that apology for Princess Diana. Amazing how strength can skip the heir and go straight to the spare! Character matters ….
Exactly, with Willy it’s always a competition, and the fact the Harry got way more, and essentially won has really got to be getting under his skin.
And they call this journalism. It’s William wanting his bruised ego stroked in public. I don’t think the settlement was 10 mill. They say 10 mill because that’s the lowest 8 figure sum. Apparently, Huevo has sobered up enough to figure out how they could twist the story to make it sound just a little bit less humiliating for him. The problem is not the amount of money, though, but the fact that Harry demanded and got an admission, apology and vindication for his mother while Huevo’s mouth was just stuffed with a fistful of cash.
I agree with you 100%
Two things I didn’t hear in the article. The week of the settlement I read somewhere that Harry didn’t sign a NDA. If that’s true then he can still talk about the case. Which could come back to bite all these reporters, and William. And the article also said the police won’t go after this because all the spying and illegal stuff was a long time ago. But was it? When it was happening they said it wasn’t. And now they are still saying it isn’t happening. But does anyone believe them.
And how are these “historic matters” seen as “basically affecting Prince Harry”? What about the 1,300 other cases NGN settled before this?
Yes! And since when are things not prosecuted because they happened in the past? Only when billionaires are involved?
Anything to embiggen William. I too believe the settlement Harry received was huge exclusive of lawyer fees which were paid separately. Harry was fully prepared to take this case all the way and the Murdoch enterprise blanked. Those folks have zero clue to the settlement amount and are releasing an amount they themselves can live with Harry receiving, nothing more.
Interestingly enough, why is the settlement a concern of Sykes or William’s?
Yes it was reported that the legal fees would be paid in addition to the financial settlement.
100% this. Legal fees & costs + the settlement for damages. Not all rolled into one figure.
I understood that the ten million was for the legal fees and the settlement was a separate amount which hasn’t been named. I bet the best part for Harry was the apology to his Mother.
Even if someone believed that PH settled because he only wanted accountability, why would Watson settle for a low amount after going so far?
Good point. And why in the world are the “rooting” for the bad guys in this? They are all on Murdoch’s side? They don’t think Harry holding them accountable for breaking the law is a good thing?
It literally makes no sense for Harry to have gone as far as his lawyers being at court for opening statements, having already turned down settlement offers in the past to all of sudden settle for pennies. This reads like the British media always reads when ” dumb Harry” gets the better of them, the royal institution, or anyone else. He didn’t ” really” win, and he really is the stupid, boorish, petty, insecure, and jealous one. No honest it’s Harry that is constantly outmaneuvered guys, no one else!!!
I didn’t read that crp but Harry’s settlement VS willy was so massively different, especially the apologies.. Willy is c lo clearly having a tantrum and wetting his pants over being bested yet again. Poor diddims.
William sold out Diana to the media. Harry got an apology from the media to Diana. Big win for Harry
Eight figures can be 10 million all the way to 99 million. Which means even at the lowball estimate, Harry got 10 times more than Will-not when he anonymously settled, wasn’t a coward who settled anonymously AND didn’t make a deal to sell anyone out for good pr. He wouldn’t have settled without the lawyers being paid separately. Lort. I hope Harry continues suing them (and wins again) and finally gets the invisible contract and malice behind withholding security revealed.
“a legal source claims that Harry and NGN came to an agreement on the settlement amount a week earlier, and yet there was panic when the lawyers couldn’t get in touch with Harry on the day the trial was supposed to start?”
Someone reputable — maybe Alan Rusbridger, or one of the Bylines team — wrote back then that NGN’s lawyers couldn’t get ahold of Lachlan Murdoch in NYC, and that was the reason of their lawyers’s panic. They finally reached him ~ 14 minutes before the start of the trial.
And every reputable named source reported that they were surprised by what became public knowledge of the settlement: a huge sum plus costs.
As if Harry would settle for a mere handshake plus change after all those years.
Sykes needs to go looking for a much better source than Harry’s stalkerish, Incandescent and incompetent brother.
Sykes doesn’t hunt down sources. He’s fed a PR script which he dutifully regurgitates for TDB audience.
Exactly.
Even Deadline, which is not pro-Sussex, stipulated the oft-quoted £10 million was in fact likely the legal fees and NOT the total sum Harry was awarded.
Mmmhmm. Sure, Will. Harry had NGN looking ridiculous with their very last minute offers. And it was all public. No bts deals like the heir did.
NGN paid Harry’s legal and court costs. There was an agreement between Harry and NGN not to discuss the settlement
Interesting that this story comes out AFTER it was announced that the parties agreed not to disclose the terms of the settlement. So Sykes knows that neither side can confirm or deny any specifics. He’s FOS as usual.
But I read that Harry didn’t sign an NDA. Maybe they just decided to not talk about the money. Because it wasn’t about the money for Harry. He got what he wanted. And still has one trial to go.
The source is probably the same one who said Harry was going to be in the UK for the start of the trial. It was reported last week that NGN had agreed to pay Harry and Tom Watson’s legal fees. Once NGN admitted guilt and apologised the trial couldn’t go forward, hence NGN settled the case.
I smell desperation – of course William’s sources would emphasize that Harry’s settlement is “only” double what William got. That is exactly what he would focus on, but I am not sure it’s a smart strategy to keep mentioning that William settled his case so quickly, and for so relatively little for someone with his resources. If I were a betting person, I’d say that W is a tad jealous about his brother’s victory…
Clearly, what mattered to Harry was not really the money, but getting NGN to admit wrongdoing to try to get some sense of justice for his family, including his late mother. He hoped it might lead to another Levinson inquiry and change things in the UK media. This DB article is trying their best to spin it as a waste of time or police resources, but it seems halfhearted at best.
It wouldn’t be a waste of time if Harry could get the newspapers to start telling the truth. It would mean a real improvement in British politics and a better life for ordinary people.
Harry’s lawyers don’t mess around.
What a crock from KP! Part of their effort to clean up behind Willie’s embarrassing and paltry secret settlement years ago. They are trying to talk down Harry’s win and convince us Willie led the wat for press accountability with his secret settlement and his bad mouthing his mom.
Sykes’ article is disputed by what was stated. Legal fees and costs plus the settlement to be paid to both Harry & Watson. Nothing but wishful thinking in Sykes’ source’s part to say Harry got $2.5M. Nah…NGN was scared of Harry. They offered him the moon to keep their dirty secrets out of the public’s eye.
Which segments of the media are radicalizing white men in their bedrooms? Oh, the same one?
Since they are lowballing settlement numbers I would say Prince Harry settled for the higher end of an eight figure settlement. The gaslighting has been off the charts trying to convince the unwashed masses that read the rags that getting a settlement and confession of guilt with an apology is somehow a loss. Prince Harry won that’s the story, the sun and Murdochs admitted guilt and issued an apology with an unprecedented settlement and jobs will be cut.. hopefully many.
THIS. Harry’s legal costs were definitely paid by NGN, separate and apart from the settlement amount. I’d be stunned if the settlement was for less than £50 million. Sykes’ arguments make no sense. There’s a reason they were trying to reach that senior Murdoch at the last minute – and I’m going to assume that it was not just about the admission of criminal activity, it was to receive the go-ahead to fork out even bigger bucks to Harry (and Watson) to completely halt the trial in its tracks.
The Prospect Magazine article actually identified errors in the phrasing of NGN’s apology to Tom Watson, and correctly noted that it indicated that the statements had been crafted in a hurry – NO way were those terms “settled a week before the trial”. Someone fed Sykes a narrative to soothe William’s bruised ego.
So I should believe this story or my own lying eyes? This really does sound like palace sources trying to prevent a Pegged temper tanturm. It’s pretty well known that Harry got his legal fees covered in the settlement but I think Peggy would go ballistic if he caught wind of that little fact since I’m sure NGN made him pay his own legal fees. It’s not NGN’s fault the next King and Queen of England are idiots.
Harry went into this prepared to LOSE money. He stated as much. So the fact that he is walking away with seven figures anyway is a nice win for him. NGN are losers regardless.
These low lives spied on a twelve year old school boy a year before his mum died and then afterwards until 2011.They are beneath contempt.
Well, Sikes should be careful. I suspect that part of the settlement was that the amounts would remain undisclosed. I can’t imagine Murdoch accepting anything else, because there are still more lawsuits against them. So, if Sikes wants people to believe that he knows how much money is involved, someone violated a settlement agreement.
The other thing that was included in the settlement, “It is also acknowledged, without any admission of illegality, that NGN’s response to the 2006 arrests and subsequent actions were regrettable.” I believe this is talking about the coverup. Harry let them off easy there, but he got the rest of what he wanted (even if NGN said it was the PIs).
He ONLY got ONE MILLION more than William?! >clutches pearls<
Geez William, show us how out of touch and elitist you are why dont ya
So, if true, Harry got twice as much as William and got an apology for his Mother and didn’t have to disparage her in the process. Oh the horror of it all.
It’s so obvious that someone is really bothered by Harry’s win over NGN. The Daily Beast is deliberately trying to confuse the actual settlement amount, which they don’t know, and NGN covering Harry’s legal costs, which is separate from damages paid. This is just bitterness over not only a large settlement, butHarry getting an apology and admission of wrongdoing. Also, even if Harry only got $50 more than William, Mr. Incandescent would still be mad about it.
Prince Harry got the admission of criminal wrongdoing and Prince Harry got the apology.. Prince Peg called his mother paranoid at a podium for all to hear. That is what matters, not who got more money.
What?? Young men are being radicalized *in their bedrooms*?? What kind of crazy kink frenzy has taken over the UK that I didn’t know about?
“The Daily Beast can now reveal that after costs, Harry could have…” That sounds like they don’t actually have anything to reveal but speculation.