CEBU, Philippines - Sienna Miller has revealed she believed her family members were selling stories on her before she realized her phone had been hacked.
The actress, 29, admitted she was left so paranoid by intimately private stories published in the News of the World between 2005 and 2006 that she accused her mother, sister and former boyfriend Jude Law of selling them to the press.
Miller, who reached a £100,000 settlement with the NOTW and is now assisting with the Leveson inquiry, also said she planted false stories after becoming suspicious that her phone was being interfered with.
She told The Independent: “I changed my mobile number three times in three months. There were clicks on the line.
“I would pick up the phone and it would drop, there were messages I would never get, coupled with articles (containing private information) coming out every week.
“So I started to do tests. I would leave messages on people's phones, like we're going to rent this house or whatever, and it would appear next day in the papers.”
After a number of stories appeared that only her inner circle of friends and family could possibly know about, the actress said she gathered them together for a showdown. She said: “I sat down in a room with my mother, my best friend, my sister, my boyfriend, and said someone in this room is lying and selling stories and one of you has got to admit it.”
Miller, who was targeted because of her high-profile relationship with Law, said she was still reluctant to take on Rupert Murdoch's media empire when the hacking scandal emerged for fear that it could damage her career.
“Everyone was scared of Rupert Murdoch, even governments,” she said. “People are terrified for their own reputations. They want the press on their side.”
Miller said she finally decided to take legal action because she could not stand back and do nothing.