Hugh Grant settles court case against The Sun’s publisher ‘for enormous sum of money’
Hugh Grant has settled a High Court claim against the publisher of The Sun newspaper after being offered an “enormous sum of money”.
The actor, 63, was meant to have his claim of unlawful information gathering against The Sun considered in a High Court trial in January.
Grant was suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) alongside Prince Harry for claims which included landline tapping, burglary and “blagging” confidential information about him.
Grant posted on X to say he decided to settle to avoid an outcome where he would have to pay millions in legal costs.
The actor said NGN claimed it was “entirely innocent of the things I had accused the Sun of doing – phone hacking, unlawful information gathering, landline tapping, the burglary of my flat and office, the bugging of my car, the illegal blagging of medical records, lies, perjury and the destruction of evidence”.
Hugh Grant presents the best director award during the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2024. Pic: Getty Images
He continued: “As is common with entirely innocent people, they are offering me an enormous sum of money to keep this matter out of court.
“I don’t want to accept this money or settle. I would love to see all the allegations that they deny tested in court.
“But the rules around civil litigation mean that if I proceed to trial and the court awards me damages that are even a penny less than the settlement offer, I would have to pay the legal costs of both sides.”
Grant, famous for films such as Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill, said his lawyers told him that would “most likely” be the outcome.
“So even if every allegation is proven in court, I would still be liable for something approaching £10 million in costs. I’m afraid I am shying at that fence,” he said.
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Grant has become a prominent campaigner on press reform since the phone-hacking scandal emerged more than a decade ago.
He previously brought a lawsuit against NGN in relation to the now-defunct News Of The World tabloid which was settled
in 2012, a year after the newspaper was shut down by media magnate Rupert Murdoch following a public backlash.
NGN has always rejected allegations of any wrongdoing by staff at The Sun, having settled more than 1,000 cases without making any admission of liability in relation to the paper.
Among other things, Grant had claimed he was targeted using “burglaries to order”.
In a witness statement, he said: “My claim concerns unlawful acts committed by The Sun, including burglaries to order, the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information through bugging, landline tapping, phone hacking, and the use of private investigators to do all these and other illegal things against me.”
Amid news last year that Grant’s claim would be tried at High Court, it was reported the actor gave the same evidence he gave to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards and ethics in 2011.
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Back then, he had spoken about a break-in at his London flat, where the front door was forced off its hinges and a story appeared shortly afterwards in The Sun that “detailed the interior”.
NGN has previously denied any unlawful activity took place at The Sun and declined to comment on Grant’s settlement.
Harry’s claim is currently set to go to trial in January 2025.
Entertainment
Peter Andre explains how Mysterious Girl music video came about – and whether he misses his 90s hairstyle
Peter Andre says the famous shirtless dancing in a lagoon for his hit 90s single Mysterious Girl was all his own idea.
Speaking about the video for the global hit, the 51-year-old told Sky News: “We were climbing up a waterfall and I said, ‘Guys, this looks like a great location,’ because I was really part of developing this whole image.
“So, I climbed up in my jeans looking at this place, and I went, ‘Start filming here, this looks like great lighting’.”
Peter Andre in a swimming pool in 1996. Pic: Rex Features
The 1995 reggae / dancehall track featuring rapper Bubbler Ranx was a top 10 hit around the world and reached number two in the UK on its re-release the following year.
In the music video, which was filmed in Thailand, a topless Andre dances and sings while inexplicably wearing a pair of jeans and a belt in a lagoon, in front of a waterfall and on a beach.
Andre and his wife Emily MacDonagh. Pic: PA
Now a father of five, Andre says his children have seen the video and are “proud,” adding “but there are also a few eyerolls… to everything [in the video] really”.
Andre married doctor Emily MacDonagh in 2015 and welcomed their third child in April. He has four other children, seven-year-old son, Theo, and daughter, Amelia, 10, whom he shares with MacDonagh, and 18-year-old son Junior and daughter Princess, 16 – whom he shares with his ex-wife, Katie Price.
As for his slicked-back curtain hairstyle – which was very much en vogue at the time – Andre says he misses it: “I wish I carried it on.”
Peter Andre in 1995. Pic: Fryderyk Gabowicz/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
‘A decline of music videos since the 1980s’
Discussing nostalgia and looking back at changes in the music industry, Andre said times have definitely changed. “I think the 80s were when videos were the most important and then it was a slight sort of decline after that. I think 90s was popular, but as it’s gone on, videos have been less effective.”
He added: “If you look at the 80s, specifically, superstars were superstars.
“If Madonna was on the radio, you knew it was Madonna. If Michael Jackson came on the radio, you knew it was Michael Jackson.
“Now there are great songs out there, but you don’t know who’s who unless you’re in with what’s going on on social media. So, it’s a different time.”
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Andre was married to Katie Price until 2009. Pic: Reuters
He says the time when “people would wait to go to the store and buy a record and it would be such a huge moment” is long gone.
He admits when recently showing his kids a VHS tape – the way everyone recorded TV and film in the 70s and 80s – they were utterly baffled, asking him “What is that?”
As for his own success in the industry, Andre says he thinks it’s largely due to working with one of the world’s biggest female music stars.
“I can only be grateful for what happened to me because my first big gig was touring with Madonna in Australia in 1980,” he said.
“I was the opening act, the only act actually for the Girly Tour in Australia… And then I came to England as an unknown after selling out arenas in Australia and it was just crazy.”
Billie Eilish has announced a new tour and will be coming to the UK next summer.
The 22-year year old‘s show is named after her latest album – Hit Me Hard And Soft – and will kick off in North America in September.
It will then head to Australia in February 2025, before travelling across Europe and arriving in the UK on 7 July when she will perform for two nights in Glasgow, at OVO Hydro.
Eilish will then play six nights at the O2 in London, and four nights at the new Co-Op Live arena in Manchester – a venue that has been beset with problems as it prepares to open to the public.
The singer will then play two gigs in Dublin, Ireland, at the 3Arena.
A vocal environmentalist, fans are being encouraged to take “sustainable transport” during the tour, which will also feature “eco-villages” and encourage plant-based food options.
The tour will partner with the plant-based food organisation Support + Feed – an initiative founded by Eilish’s mother Maggie Baird – and environmental non-profit organisation REVERB.
The concerts will also aim to reduce “greenhouse gas pollution, decreasing single-use plastic waste, supporting climate action”, the promoters Live Nation said.
Eilish’s third studio album comes out on 17 May, a month after Taylor Swift‘s much lauded album The Tortured Poets Department.
Like Swift, Eilish is encouraging fans to listen to the collection as a whole, saying on her website that the new body of work should be listened to chronologically as it “hits you hard and soft both lyrically and sonically, while bending genres and defying trends along the way”.
She’s not released any singles in advance, encouraging fans to listen “in one go”.
The album cover features Eilish on her back under dark water with a white door open above her.
Eilish and Finneas accept their second Oscar. Pic: AP /Chris Pizzello
Eilish’s last album was 2021’s Happier Than Ever, and her debut record When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was released in 2019.
The youngest person ever to have won two Oscars, she took home the award for best original song Oscar gong for Barbie’s What Was I Made For? in March, and won the same prize for James Bond’s No Time To Die in 2022.
Tickets for Hit Me Hard And Soft go on general sale on Friday.
Billie Eilish’s UK tour dates:
Mon 7 July, 2025 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
Tue 8 July, 2025 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
Thu 10 July, 2025 – London, UK – The O2
Fri 11 July, 2025 -London, UK – The O2
Sun 13 July, 2025 – London, UK – The O2
Mon 14 July, 2025 – London, UK – The O2
Wed 16 July, 2025 – London, UK – The O2
Thu 17 July, 2025 – London, UK – The O2
Sat 19 July, 2025 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Sun 20 July, 2025 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Tue 22 July, 2025 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Wed 23 July, 2025 – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Entertainment
Googlebox star George Gilbey’s mum reveals his last words to her before he fell to his death
The mother of Gogglebox star George Gilbey has revealed his last words to her were “I love you”.
Gilbey died after falling through a plastic skylight while fixing a warehouse roof in Essex in March.
The 40-year-old appeared alongside his mum, Linda McGarry, and stepdad on the hit Channel 4 show.
The family first appeared on the second series of Gogglebox in 2013 but were dropped the following year when Gilbey signed up for the 14th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, reaching the final.
Mrs McGarry said she spoke to him on the phone hours before his death.
Gilbey appeared alongside his mum Linda and stepdad Pete on Gogglebox. Pic: PA
She told The Sun: “He phoned me at 9.30 in the morning and said he was working – and asked me for his ‘breakfast money’.
“I put £30 in his account so he could get food, and he seemed fine.
“He had a drink the night before, and liked a bottle of white wine or two, but was happy that he was working. He ended the phone call by saying, ‘I love you’ like he usually did. I treasure those words.”
She added: “It was an honour for him to have been my son. We had a blast for 40 years.”
Mrs McGarry said her son had struggled with the death of his dad, stepfather and her own Parkinson’s diagnosis.
At the time of his death, he was working to save money to move closer to his seven-year-old daughter, Amelie, in southwest London.
“He wanted to be with Amelie, who he adored,” she told The Sun.
“They were on the third day of a job that was going to last a month, and he was going to get money together from that.
“When they were together, George and Amelie were always laughing. She is going to miss him terribly, like we all will.”
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Gilbey suffered traumatic injuries to his head and torso and died at the scene in Shoeburyness.
An inquest was opened last week but suspended after a request from police pending a criminal investigation.
A man in his 40s from the Witham area of Essex was previously arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
He was later released under investigation.
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