phone hacking Sadie Frost Paul Gasgoigne
Actress Sadie Frost and Paul Gascoigne were among the eight celebrities who had their phones hacked by the Mirror Group Newspapers Reuters

Actress Sadie Frost and soccer legend Paul Gascoigne are among eight people to be awarded phone-hacking damages by the Mirror Group Newspapers.

Frost, the ex-wife of Jude Law, was said to be "relieved" and "thrilled" after being awarded what is thought to be the biggest single privacy settlement of £260,250 ($408,160) since the scandal erupted in 2010.

Gascoigne, who was not believed by loved ones and therapist that his phone was being hacked, was given £188,250. They told him he was "paranoid" and had some sort of "mental disorder".

The court heard phone hacking at the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror was "rife" between 1999 and 2006 and that it made News Of The World look "like a small cottage industry".

Shane Richie, who plays Alfie Moon in EastEnders, was awarded £155,000 and actress Shobna Gulati £117,500. TV producer Robert Ashworth, who was married to Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw, received £201,250.

Air hostess Lauren Alcorn was given £72,500. She had a relationship with footballer Rio Ferdinand.

Former EastEnders star Lucy Benjamin was given £157,250. Her former boyfriend Steve McFadden, who plays Phil Mitchell, told the trial phone hacking had ruined their relationship and made her "unemployable".

The payouts totalled £1.2m and dwarfed the payments that News UK, the publisher of the now defunct News Of The World paper, awarded its victims.

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