The News of the World spent up to $250,000 flying Divine Brown and her family to the middle of the Nevada desert after securing an exclusive interview about the former Hollywood sex worker's liaison with Hugh Grant, the Old Bailey has heard.
Rebekah Brooks, features editor of the paper in June 1995 when the story broke, told the jury in the phone-hacking trial on Thursday that she sanctioned a $100,000 payment to Brown for an interview – before moving her entire family beyond the reach of rival UK tabloids who were chasing the story.
Giving evidence in the witness box, Brooks said: "I think the deal with Divine Brown was about $100,000, give or take, all directly to her. There was a huge cost once we had found Divine Brown, there was an expectation that the Mail and the Sun wouldn't be far behind so we asked if she would move from her home to a different location.
"From memory, she wanted to take quite a number of her family with her. We flew them to a place in Nevada, in the desert."
Asked by her counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, whether they were removing her from the reach of rival newspapers, Brooks smiled and said: "It all seems so silly now, but it was important."
She continued: "We had to hire a plane because there was quite a few of them [Brown's family], so that was a huge cost as was the location we chose. In the desert, you have these oasis resorts and that was again a great cost."
It was only a Thursday by the time the News of the World had secured the exclusive interview and moved Brown's family to Nevada, the court heard, so Brooks moved the entire family again before story was published on the Sunday.
Asked what the total cost would have been to secure Brown's story, Brooks said: "I think the total was about 200 or 250 [thousand dollars], I'm sorry it's so long ago, it was probably one of the biggest expenses I've ever done. It was a lot of money."
She added that the expenditure caused "quite a lot of serious damage" to the feature's desk's weekly expenses budget of between £50,000 and £60,000.
Brooks denies all charges against her.
The trial continues.
