Lawyers for a UK tabloid publisher said Tuesday they were “very close” to settling a hotly-disputed lawsuit brought by Britain’s Prince Harry for alleged unlawful information gathering by two of its newspapers.
Last-minute negotiations between the parties bogged down the start of the trial which had been due to open Tuesday at London’s High Court.
The case is the culmination of years of legal wrangling during which dozens of other claimants settled, and pits King Charles III’s youngest son and a Labour lawmaker against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN).
They claim private investigators working for two tabloids owned by NGN — The Sun and now-shuttered News of the World — repeatedly targeted them unlawfully more than a decade ago.
Their blockbuster trial — due to last up to eight weeks — was set to begin Tuesday morning, but lawyers repeatedly asked the judge to postpone its start amid “intense” …