Actor Liz Hurley on Thursday broke down in tears in the witness box of London’s High Court as she accused a tabloid publisher of “monstrous” conduct including planting secret microphones on her home windows. Hurley, 60, the former partner of Hollywood star Hugh Grant, is suing Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, over alleged privacy breaches along with Prince Harry and five other high-profile figures. Harry, who gave his own emotional testimony Wednesday, was back in court to “show solidarity with the other claimants”, his spokesman told UK media.
Hurley repeatedly became tearful and struggled to speak as she defended her claim — which relates to 15 articles from 2002 to 2011 — during questioning by ANL’s lawyer. “There were microphones on the windowsill of my dining room… I was being listened to,” Hurley told the court, calling the press intrusion “deeply hurtful”. In a written statement, she claimed “The Mail’s Unlawful Acts against me involve landline tapping my phones and recording my live telephone conversations, placing surreptitious mics on my home windows.” She also accused the tabloid of “stealing my medical information when I was pregnant” with her son Damian and “other monstrous, staggering things”.
Hurley alleges ANL journalists commissioned and paid various private investigators to conduct the unlawful information-gathering. In her statement, she claimed one investigator biked tapes of the illegally obtained phone recordings “to the defendant’s newspaper for £2,000 plus, in cash, hidden in an envelope”. “It was disgusting, mortifying, humiliating,” she stated.
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