Hacked Off benefits as Hurley wins phone-tapping damages

The 51-year-old actress and model was not at the High Court in London yesterday for the settlement of her action for misuse of private information. The amount of damages was not made public at the brief hearing before Mr Justice Mann. Her solicitor, Anjlee Saigol, told the judge Ms Hurley had donated the “substantial” sum to Hacked Off “to assist other victims of the Press”.

Last month, Lord Jeffrey Archer and Dame Mary Archer, footballer Kevin Keegan, former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, actress Patsy Kensit, Jo Wood, the ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, and singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor were among 44 cases which were resolved.

It is understood that some of the settlements exceeded the £260,250 record damages awarded to actress and businesswoman Sadie Frost following a trial in 2015 – and that around 50 claims are still in the pipeline.

Ms Saigol said that in March 2015, Ms Hurley brought proceedings over the publication of 58 separate 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.

“During this period, MGN’s journalists published a stream of articles about her, each detailing the clearly sensitive circumstances of her pregnancy.

“Whilst it is not admitted by MGN that this was the product of unlawful activity, through the pages of MGN’s national newspapers, Ms Hurley’s private matters were unravelled, including details of the ensuing paternity dispute, the fact of a series of crisis talks with her former partner, the involvement of lawyers, emotional responses and reactions; and disputes over her son, all presented and treated by MGN as if this painful time in Ms Hurley’s life was a drama to be enjoyed and consumed.”

Hacked Off’s Dr Evan Harris said: “Hacked Off is extremely grateful to Elizabeth Hurley for her generous donation.”