Sienna Miller Talks Phone-Hacking Scandal: "It Was Bad for Me"

Jude Law's ex finally opens up about the privacy violations she suffered at the hands of News of the World phone tappers

By Josh Grossberg Sep 15, 2011 7:25 PMTags

Sienna Miller has every right to savor this moment now that the folks who hacked into her cell phone are finally being held accountable.

In an interview with the Today show, the British star sounded off on the phone-tapping scandal that's enveloped her life for much of the past seven years.

No doubt, she has a lot on her mind.

Miller told anchor Amy Robach she felt "incredibly paranoid" when tidbits she related to only her closest family members and best friend began turning up as titillating tabloid stories.

"Stories were coming out that nobody knew about, that nobody except my mother, my sister, my boyfriend and my best friend, and there were times I'd sit down with those four people and accuse one of them of sending stories," Miller said. "And I'd also—terrible—but I'd tell my best friends things and see if they came out and they never did."

Such invasions of privacy committed by the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid took its toll on the actress.

"Everything is compromised enormously," she reflected. "It's had a huge impact on relationships, friendships, career, all sorts of things. But on a personal level, just that feeling of violation, it was bad for me but now obviously it's come to light that victims of crime were being hacked and that's atrocious. That's on another level."

Sienna began to suspect something was up when people would leave voice mails she'd never get, prompting her own investigation.

"That started to happen a a lot," she continued. "Obviously these mails weren't being listened to and were no longer new so they wouldn't be in my inbox. But then I'd sort of plant stories. We'd leave messages on certain people's phones and it would come out."

Finally, Miller reported her suspicions to Scotland Yard only to see little done about it.

"The police were reluctant to give up any information," she said. "They had this evidence and not kind of handed it out. You know, you trust the police force and it was shocking to know you couldn't in this case."

Little did Jude Law's former gal-pal know there were some on the force who were also on the tabloid payroll. 

Miller decided to take legal action and managed to get a hold of notes from News of the World's private investigators. It contained not only the actress' personal identification numbers, but also family and friends and she eventually discovered "a huge web of deception."

That led to the momentous decision to sue the tab, which ended this May in victory with a judgment of $162,000 in her favor and a big, fat apology from News of the World's editors, who accepted all liability in the case.

"It was really scary and definitely times when I doubted it was something I should do," she admitted.

But ultimately Sienna was happy she did take action and while she wishes the whole affair never happened, she's not giving up the fight. Miller's expected to participate in a government inquiry looking into the illegal spying on the part of Murdoch's tabloid media empire along with J.K. Rowling and Hugh Grant, who has been an outspoken critic of the hacking and even helped expose it.

PICS: Big Celebrity Splits