Cherie Blair Files Lawsuit Over Phone Hacking Scandal

Cherie Blair, the wife of former English Prime Minister Tony Blair, files a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers Ltd. in relation to the phone hacking scandal that rocked his media empire.

Murdoch's English newspaper, the News of the World was published by News Group, which is part of News Corp. subsidiary, News International. News of the World reporters and editors allegedly hacked into people's voicemails.

I can confirm that we have issued a claim on behalf of Cherie Blair in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails, said Blair's solicitor in a statement, according to the Guardian. I will not be commenting any further at this time.

In November, Tony Blair's former communications direct and press secretary, Alastair Campbell, told an inquiry regarding the ethics of the newspaper and Murdoch's company that he suspected Blair's friend, Carole Caplin, had information about her.

During various periods of the time that we were in government, we were very, very concerned about how many stories about Cherie and Carole Caplin were getting out to different parts of the media, he said, according to BBC. I had no idea how they were getting out. In relation to not just Carole, and not just Cherie, but all of us who were involved in the government at that time, all sorts of stuff got out.

However, Campbell changed his mind regarding the story.

I did at times directly accuse Carole Caplin of tipping off newspapers about what she was up to. I've since apologized to her for that because I now realize I was completely wrong, he said.

In January, Tina Weaver of the Daily Mirror told the inquiry that the newspaper published a story regarding Blair's pregnancy in 1999. However, she said it came from a public relations expert named Max Clifford.

The information came in to the then-editor, Piers Morgan, and I was his deputy and he asked me to write it, she said, according to the Guardian. He purchased it from Max Clifford, I think that's a matter of record, and he told Mr. Morgan where he received the original information from, I believe.