LONDON — Elizabeth Hurley accused the Daily Mail publisher of tapping her phones, planting microphones outside her windows and stealing her medical records among “other monstrous, shocking things” on Thursday while testifying in a celebrity-laden privacy invasion lawsuit.
“The best way I can describe it is that someone is peeking into your life and your home,” the model and actor said. It “makes me feel as if my private life has been invaded by predatory intruders – that there were terrible burglars in my house all along and I was living with them, completely unaware.”
Hurley testified the day Prince Harry broke down in tears while talking about the emotional toll his battle with the British media has had on him and his family. Harry appeared at the High Court on Thursday to show his support during much of Hurley’s testimony.
Harry, Hurley and Elton John are among a group of seven claimants who allege Associated Newspapers Ltd. hired private investigators to illegally spy on them for more than two decades.
The publisher has denied the claims and described them as absurd. It said the articles were reported with legitimate sources and that a number of people would be named by staff at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in the company’s defense during a nine-week trial at the High Court in London.
Hurley, who like the Prince has brought similar phone hacking lawsuits against the publishers of the Daily Mirror and The Sun, said she was unaware of similar allegations against the Mail until she was told in 2020 that Gavin Burrows, a former private eye, had allegedly said he had stolen her information on the orders of the newspapers.
Burroughs has since denied that sworn statement and says he never worked for the Mail.
Hurley claims that 15 articles about him between 2002 and 2011 were based on illegal information gathering. Many talked about the birth of his son Damian in 2002 and his paternity battle with his father, the late film producer Steve Bing.
Hurley said, “Mel’s illegal acts against me included tapping my phone landline and recording my live telephone conversations, placing secret mics on the windows of my home, stealing my medical information while I was pregnant with Damien, and other monstrous, shocking things.”
He said he hoped his son, now a model and actor, who was sitting in the courtroom, would never see those articles.
She became upset when shown some of those articles in court, “I feel really sad that my son will be able to read all this one day, and I feel really bad that today is the day that all this stuff is coming out again.” “Yet, everyone’s privacy is being invaded in this horrible way, and I feel very helpless about it.”
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