26 May Privacy: Liz Hurley wins damages for phone hacking

Actor Liz Hurley has received substantial damages and an apology from MGN Ltd, the publishers of the Daily Mirror, over the hacking of her mobile phone.

While the amount of damages was not made public, it is thought the payment could exceed the £260,250 paid to Sadie Frost, which was made following a judge’s ruling in a 2015 trial of a number of celebrity claims against the newspaper group.

Claims settled in April included those brought by Lord Jeffrey Archer and Dame Mary Archer, footballer Kevin Keegan, former home secretary Charles Clarke, actor Patsy Kensit, Jo Wood, the ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Hurley’s claim related to the publication of 58 articles published between July 1998 and March 2007 by all three of MGN’s newspapers.

‘Whilst Ms Hurley believed that each one of these articles intruded upon her private affairs, it was MGN’s relentless, voyeuristic interest in her pregnancy between 2001 and 2002 that she still recalled with particular anger and horror so many years later,’ said her solicitor.

Lawyers representing MGN said the phone hacking was ‘wholly unacceptable’ and offered an apology.

Lawyers for Liz Hurley, who did not attend the High Court hearing herself, said she would donate the damages to campaigning group Hacked Off to ‘assist other victims of the press’.