Liz Hurley says ‘monstrous’ phone tapping allegedly by Daily Mail publisher left her ‘devastated’

A tearful Liz Hurley has accused the Daily Mail publisher of stealing her medical records while she was pregnant with her son, and said she was left “devastated” to discover that it had allegedly tapped her phone.

The actor grew visibly upset in the witness box at the High Court, where she was accompanied by her son Damian, with Prince Harry also in attendance to support.

In written evidence, she said: “The Mail’s unlawful acts against me involve landline tapping my phones and recording my live telephone conversations, placing surreptitious mics on my home windows, stealing my medical information when I was pregnant with Damian and other monstrous, staggering things.”

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Ms Hurley, 60, continued: “Above all, it was the discovery that the Mail had tapped the landlines of my home phones and tape recorded my live telephone conversations that devastated me.

“I had not come across this brutal invasion of privacy in either of my two battles with the other newspapers. I felt crushed. It represented the ultimate violation of privacy.”

She is one of seven claimants taking legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited for alleged unlawful information gathering, which includes phone hacking and “blagging” private records.

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She said: “I felt really mortified that my son would be able to read all this stuff one day, and I feel really bad that that day is today when all this stuff is being regurgitated again. Yet again, everyone’s privacy is being invaded in this terrible way and I feel very helpless about that.”

Ms Hurley also told the court she used to think of the British press as the best in the world, and to some extent, still does. She added there were “just some rotten eggs. I don’t have a vendetta against the British press. I don’t have a vendetta or hatred of Associated at all. I just feel some bad things went on with some bad people.”

Her evidence comes a day after Prince Harry told the court: “They have made my wife’s life an absolute misery.”

When asked how the proceedings had made him feel by his barrister David Sherborne on Wednesday, the duke said: “It’s fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability. It’s a horrible experience.”

In his 23-page witness statement, Harry said that when he brought legal action against two other newspaper publishers, he had “no idea” that he might have had a claim against ANL.

He continued: “As I am sure is clear, if I had known earlier then I would have acted, particularly given ANL’s treatment of Meghan and her claim against it.”

The Duchess of Sussex sued ANL and won in 2021 after The Mail on Sunday published parts of a “personal and private” letter to her father Thomas Markle. Soon after he began dating Meghan, Harry attacked the media over its “abuse and harassment” of her, and Kensington Palace warned on his behalf: “This is not a game – it is her life.”

In a frosty exchange between Harry and lawyers acting on behalf of ANL, the duke told the High Court: “My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.” He said that if he became suspicious of someone, “I would have to cut contact with this person”.

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One of the stories complained about by Harry concerned “confidential discussions” he had after a photo of a dying Diana, Princess of Wales, was published in the Italian press – an article he described as “beyond cruel”.

In his written evidence, Harry described an article published in the Daily Mail in July 2006 as “really disgusting”, saying he was having private discussions with his brother, William.

Other articles concerned his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and Harry told the court he was “really worried something bad was going to happen” when he was in a relationship with her.

He said in written evidence: “I was never suspicious of Chelsy in relation to stories like this, but I was of her friends. If I saw this story at the time, I would have been very frustrated and angry. I would have questioned how Associated found out this information. But, at the same time, I would have felt like I had to accept this as the reality of my life.”

Ms Hurley, along with the duke, Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, fellow actor Sadie Frost, the campaigner Doreen Lawrence and the politician Simon Hughes are suing ANL) over allegations of unlawful information gathering.

ANL denies wrongdoing and is defending the claims.

The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin, which is due to conclude in March, continues.