📰 Hugh Grant Settles Case Against The Sun For ‘Enormous Sum'

Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper The Sun. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
And Amanda jam Nas.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
We've spoken to Hugh Grant a few times in our career.
He's a very he.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Doesn't tolerate fools, which is where we feel.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
To turn individual.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
He's a bit prickly, isn't he. But through the years
I've come to admire that he hasn't changed for anybody.
I've come to admire the Hugh Grant nature of him. Really.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, And he's been in battle with Murdoch Press for
many years now, after a defamation case that's gone on
for a long long time.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
He says that they have hacked his home, his car,
his office. They were getting a whole lot of information
and he wondered, how are they doing this? And he
thinks it's because he's been hacked. And not only that,
he and Prince Harry and a number of others are
in a deformation case against Murdoch, claiming I think the
words blagging that they have through nefarious means gleaned medical
information about them and printed it. So it's been horrendous stuff.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
And also, in a nice bit of self awareness that
a lot of celebrities don't have, Hugh admitted back in
the old days when the Vine Brown encounter happened why
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Newsworthy the Tymelroy started writing about me in when I
suddenly had some success, which was in nineteen ninety four,
after four weddings and a funeral in the wake of
my Divine Brown escapade.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
I kind of knew the bit storm, so in a
way I think I thought, well, this is all part
of my punishment. But wherever you went, bang out came
a pap and he thought, how do they know where
I am?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So that's a different kettle.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Of fish, that's right. And he has fought for twelve
years and he's been very vocal about this and it's
not easy to take on the Murdoch Press. He finally
settled yesterday. He didn't want to, but he said that
even if he won, he would have to pay the
legal fees of both sides, so that would is going
to come to ten ten million pounds and he figured
I had to pull out at that. I'll read you

(01:51):
what he wrote. He wrote this thread yesterday on Twitter.
For anyone who's been interested in my lawsuit against the Sun,
the news is that I've had to settle my claim
out of court before it gets to a trial. Newsgroup
are claiming they are entirely innocent of the things I
had accused the son of doing phone hacking, unlawful information gathering,
landline tapping, the burglary of my flat and office, the

(02:12):
bugging of my car, the illegal blagging of medical records, lies, perjury,
and the destruction of evidence. Rupert Murdock is spent over
one billion pounds in damages to claimants and in lawyer's fees,
settling over fifteen hundred claims. In this way, he seems
remarkably determined that there shouldn't be a trial of the facts.
Murdock settlement money has a stink, and are refused to

(02:34):
let this be hush money. I've spent the best part
of twelve years fighting for a free press that does
not distort the truth, does not abuse ordinary members of
the public or hold elected MPs to ransom in pursuit
of newspaper baron's personal profit and political power. So this
money will be repurposed via groups like hacked Off, into
the general campaign to expose the worst excesses of our

(02:54):
oligarch owned press, as is common with entirely innocent people.
They are offering me in an enormous sum of money
to keep this matter out of court. I don't want
to accept this money or settle. I'd love to see
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 lesson the settlement offer, I'd have to pay

(03:16):
the legal costs of both sides. My lawyers tell me
that's exactly what would most likely happen here. Ribert Murdock's
lawyers are very expensive, so even if every allegation is
proven in court, I would still be liable for something
approaching ten million pounds in costs. I'm afraid I'm shying
at that fence. And then he goes on to thank
his legal team, the whistleblowers who have helped him, and

(03:36):
the innocent, and there's everyday people who've supported him. I
have utmost respect for him. So here he is saying,
I'm settling, but this won't be hush money. I still
believe these accusations, and I'm going to use this money
to help fund groups that are looking further into it.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I guess look for a more reliable new source like X,
like X that's right, or social media,