Liz Hurley turned concerned in telephone hacking marketing campaign after Hugh Grant gave her ‘pet canine eyes’, High Court hears
Hugh Grant’s ‘puppy dog eyes’ persuaded Liz Hurley into taking legal action for alleged phone hacking against newspapers, she told a court on Thursday.
The actress and model told the High Court that Four Weddings star Mr Grant, her former boyfriend, asked her to get involved in a privacy claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in 2015.
She said: ‘I think he probably gave me puppy dog eyes and persuaded me. I think he just said, “You would be doing a good thing, please”.’
Miss Hurley, 60, brought a successful action against MGN for phone hacking and said she had been paid £350,000 in damages, which she gave to pressure group Hacked Off.
She is now one of seven claimants, including Prince Harry and Sir Elton John, who have accused Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday, of unlawful information gathering.
The newspaper group denies the accusations, saying they are ‘preposterous’ and ‘simply untrue’.
Model Elizabeth Hurley leaving the High Court, with her son Damian, after her testimony in the witness box
The Duke of Sussex arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice for day four of his privacy trial against the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday
A court artist’s sketch of Elizabeth Hurley in the witness box being watched by Prince Harry as she was cross-examined by Antony White KC, for Associated Newspapers
Miss Hurley is suing over 15 articles which she alleges featured information obtained unlawfully, including details about her pregnancy with son Damian and disputes with his late father, Steve Bing.
Mr Hurley, now 23, watched from the back of the courtroom as his mother was questioned over articles about his parents’ embittered relationship breakdown.
The Duke of Sussex sat next to Mr Hurley and placed his hand on the younger man’s back as Miss Hurley wept during her evidence.
She angrily rejected suggestions that her friends had given information to the Press.
But she agreed she had authorised some close confidants – including another claimant in the case, Sir Elton John’s husband David Furnish – to speak to ‘nice’ journalists on her behalf, often to accompany a ‘nice’ photoshoot in a glossy magazine.
And she also agreed there was a ‘mutual arrangement’ for celebrities to promote themselves and their work in the media.
Miss Hurley, who appeared in films including Austin Powers and Bedazzled, said: ‘When you’re in the public eye and you have a movie to promote or a book to sell, yes we do Press, it’s a mutual arrangement.’
She denied she had a ‘vendetta’ against the Press and said she had previously only taken action over articles which were libellous or hurtful to her son.
But she said she had taken ‘immediate action’ after learning in 2020 that a private investigator, Gavin Burrows, had allegedly confessed to hacking and landline tapping.
Mr Burrows has since disavowed the ‘witness statement’ presented by the claimants’ legal team and said the signature on it is a forgery. He is due to give evidence later in the trial.
Miss Hurley denied suggestions from Antony White KC, for Associated, that she had known of plans to sue the Mail and The Mail On Sunday earlier.
She said Mr Grant, a key supporter of Hacked Off, remained one of her closest friends but denied they would have spoken about a potential claim against Associated Newspapers before she learned of Mr Burrows’ alleged confession.
She told the court: ‘I can honestly say that he idea of Hugh and I talking about politics or anything grown-up is phenomenally unlikely.
‘That may reflect badly on me, because I’m sure he has grown−up political conversations with other people, but I am not one of them.’
The Duke left the courtroom during her evidence and reportedly met with Baroness Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, at the House of Lords later in the day.
The Labour peer is another claimant in the case and is also expected to give evidence.
The case continues.
