Tony Blair contacted Rebekah Brooks the day after it was revealed Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked offering to help her get through the mounting crisis, the Old Bailey has heard.
The former prime minister emailed her on 5 July 2011 saying: "Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. Thinking of you."
His contact was made as the crisis threatening to engulf News International had taken what Brooks described as a "horrific" twist when the Guardian reported that the missing Surrey schoolgirl's phone had been hacked by the News of the World and her voicemails had been deleted giving her parents "false hope" that she was still alive.
Blair continued in his email: "I have been through things like this."
Brooks replied to Blair: "Thank you. I know what it is like. GB pals getting their own back." She explained to the court that GB was Gordon Brown. Her text continued: "Rupert and James [Murdoch] have been brilliant. Hopefully in this climate the truth will out."
Blair was one of a number of high profile people including education secretary Michael Gove and CNN presenter Piers Morgan who texted Brooks after the Guardian story to offer their support.
Morgan, with whom she had worked at the start of her career on the News of the World, texted her to say: "When it rains, it fucking pours. Grit your teeth and stay strong," the Old Bailey heard.
Brooks replied to Morgan: "Terrible. Makes me sick when watching the news. Can't believe anyone would do that. Must have been Mulcaire."
Morgan then advised Brooks that if she knew it wasn't someone on the staff of the paper, she should get a statement out immediately, texting: "If it was not a staffer, you've got to get that out there fast. Lots of fury building on internet."
Brooks told him: "Will do. Taking the usual News Corp tin hat approach."
She added: "Bloody shocking if true."
Morgan replied: "I agree."
The following morning, on 5 July 2011, Brooks told the court Morgan texted "sarcastically" to tell her she was "trending" on Twitter.
Brooks described Morgan as an "avid twitterer ... twit" before her counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, intervened to say the correct adjective was "tweeter".
Giving evidence for the eighth day in the hacking trial, Brooks was taken through a number of texts and email exchanges that her defence counsel produced.
She told the court she was at a fertility clinic in London with her cousin, who had agreed to be a surrogate mother for her baby, when she was alerted to the Guardian online story via an email from the News International head of corporate affairs, Simon Greenberg.
She said she did "not believe" the story and spent the drive back to the office talking to Greenberg to establish what was going on following the story, which appeared on the afternoon of 4 July 2011.
"At this stage still we did not know the police officer on Operation Weeting was leaking to the Guardian. The police had been in the building since January. They had given no visibility to us that this [Dowler hacking incident] was there, certainly sitting there since 2006. There was a slight 'is it true' moment."
The court has already heard that an officer involved in the arrests strategy in the Met's investigation into phone hacking had been leaking to the Guardian.
Later that evening Brooks received a text from now-deceased ex-Mirror columnist Sue Carroll, who at the time had cancer, the court heard.
Brooks texted her to say: "You are so lovely to think about me. Not sure if it's true but bloody awful if it is."
The former News International chief executive said she considered resigning that day but was persuaded by Rupert Murdoch not to do anything until he arrived in London.
Brooks said the Guardian article had "sparked fury" across the country and "understandably so", but the company was in the dark as to its veracity.
At the time, she said, they couldn't work out how Labour MP Tom Watson and the Dowlers' lawyers knew all about it, but News International didn't despite regular meetings with the police about the mounting civil claims against the company over hacking.
She told the court she had received death threats and a bomb hoax, and at one point that week said she was a victim of a "sexist witch-hunt" in a text to Kath Raymond, the wife of Les Hinton, the former News International chief executive.
"The allegations were universally met with revulsion and I was the central figure for that," she added.
Brooks revealed that Gove texted her to cancel a meeting with her that week, noting that it was "hardly a calm moment in the life of the nation". But he added that his wife Sarah and he were "very keen to catch up".
She explained that the company was holding a series of roadshows in Wembley that week but in the face of the crisis was trying to cancel everything.
Others who texted her on 4 July 2011 to offer support were the Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, who told her "don't let the bastards get you down" and advised her that she might want to issue "a personal statement" expressing her "revulsion".
The former News of the World sports editor, Mike Dunn, texted Brooks to tell her he knew she could not have known about the Dowler hacking, which happened in April 2002 when she was still editor of the News of the World.
"If you had the slightest suspicion of this, you would have stamped it out in a flash," he wrote, adding: "You have done absolutely nothing wrong. This is totally alien to your character and soul."
Brooks was asked Laidlaw whether there was there any truth in the allegation that she conspired with her secretary Cheryl Carter to destroy notebooks on 8 July 2011, the day after it was announced the News of the World was to close.
She responded: "No, absolutely not." She said she had worked with Carter for 16 years and described her as "brilliant" and "amazing" and a very "friendly, open book" sort of person.
The trial continues.
