Prince Harry leveled dramatic allegations at News Group Newspapers (NGN) claiming that The Sun paid for a private investigator to find out Meghan Markle's US social security number. The detective was used during the early stages of dating, Prince Harry claimed in a preliminary court hearing for his case against NGN.
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"The Sun (through its journalist, James Beal, who I now know regularly stalked me in the U.K. and abroad to places such as Jamaica) instructed an American private investigator, Danno Hanks (who has admitted to regularly carrying out work for NGN over a number of years), to obtain private information in the form of a report about my new relationship with Meghan," Prince Harry said in his witness statement.
“This information, which included highly sensitive information such as her social security number (and other details about her and her family), was unlawfully obtained by Mr. Hanks in the full knowledge of the Editors of The Sun," the statement further said, citing some of the information garnered, "such as my and/or Meghan’s call records (to establish how many texts I had sent her), flight details and so on."
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Daniel Portley-Hanks- the retired PI- claimed in a 2021 interview that he obtained information about Meghan Markle illegally. He told The New York Times that The Sun "sent me a letter I had to sign that said I wouldn’t use any illegal methods to locate people or do background checks."
{{/usCountry}}Daniel Portley-Hanks- the retired PI- claimed in a 2021 interview that he obtained information about Meghan Markle illegally. He told The New York Times that The Sun "sent me a letter I had to sign that said I wouldn’t use any illegal methods to locate people or do background checks."
{{/usCountry}}“Then the reporters came back to me and said, 'But if you want to get work, keep doing what you’ve been doing,' with a nod and a wink,” Daniel Portley-Hanks said.