Heather Mills Receives Payout In Murdoch Phone-Hacking Case

Heather Mills

Heather Mills has received an apology after settling her phone-hacking case against the News of the World in return for a substantial financial payout as part of an agreement under which she dropped similar claims against the Sun.

The Guardian reports the former wife of the Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney said a “criminal, targeted smear campaign” over the course of a decade by the news outlet had destroyed her reputation and left her unable to carry on her charity work.

Mills was one of about 90 individuals, including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, who recently settled their cases for invasion of privacy against News Group Newspapers, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled publisher that owns the News of the World and the Sun.

At a pre-trial hearing the high court heard claims from Mills’ lawyer that phone hacking was widespread at both newspapers, citing 141 articles published across the two titles that they believed were based on unlawful information gathering.


However, in common with other phone-hacking settlements, the settlement was reached on the basis that wrongdoing was confined to journalists at the defunct News of the World. The company made no admission of liability in relation to their allegations of voicemail interception or other unlawful information gathering at the Sun.