Elizabeth Hurley has said in a witness statement to court that she felt “crushed” over “brutal invasion of privacy” by the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
She alleges the Mail tapped her landlines and placed “surreptitious mics on my home windows” in an effort to get stories.
The actress became tearful as she gave evidence in her case against publisher Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) at London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday.
She is one of seven high-profile claimants accusing ANL of “grave breaches of privacy” over a 20-year period. The publisher has denied wrongdoing.
Hurley’s claim against the publisher relates to 15 articles through which she says ANL “wilfully exploited my stolen information using its arsenal of illegal means”.
She says five of the articles are about her son Damian and his father.
Hurley also claims the Mail stole her medical information while she was pregnant with Damian, who she refers to as the “centre of my world”.
When asked in the witness box why she had not previously taken legal action against the publisher, she said it was because from what she remembered, “complaints were for libel” and the articles were “in essence true”.
“I believe that is because people were listening to me speak,” she told the court.
It was put to her by Antony White KC for ANL that there had been “leaks in your camp” which had led to stories and she agreed she had initially thought that.
But she insisted that none of her close friends would have talked to the press without her permission.
Challenged about a 2001 story in Hello Magazine, the barrister pointed out that two friends had been quoted talking about her.
“They would never ever say anything indiscreet about me,” she replied.
Another claimant, the Duke of Sussex, was seen entering the court after a spokesperson said he would be present “to support, and show solidarity”.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Prince Harry was visibly emotional as he said the publisher made the life of his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, “an absolute misery”.
The prince’s voice broke as he said the court battle had been a “horrible experience” for his family and that all he wanted was “an apology and some accountability”.
Joining Hurley and Prince Harry in bringing the lawsuit against ANL are:
- Fellow actress Sadie Frost
- Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish
- Sir Simon Hughes, the former Liberal Democrat MP
- Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a campaigner whose son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in south London in 1993
The claimants have accused ANL of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” for stories between 1993 and “beyond” 2018, including through private investigators and blagging.
ANL has previously denied allegations of unlawful information gathering.
White, representing the publisher, has said the claimants are “clutching at straws” and that the claims had been brought too late.
Privacy cases must usually be brought within six years of the alleged breach, unless victims can show they could not bring a case at the time.
White argued the reporters behind the stories had provided a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles”, saying that in some cases celebrities’ friends and social circles contributed as sources to Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists.
In court on Wednesday, he suggested Harry knew his social circle was “leaky”, to which the prince responded: “My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.”
The case continues and is expected to last nine weeks. This is a civil trial, so there is no jury and the judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, will decide the case on his own.
It is Prince Harry’s third major court battle accusing newspaper groups of unlawful behaviour.
In December 2023, he won 15 claims in his case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him.
In January 2025, the publisher of the Sun newspaper agreed to pay “substantial damages” and issued an apology to the prince over claims of unlawful intrusion into his life.
