Sienna Miller admits ‘brief encounter’ with Bond star Craig

This Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011 file photo shows British actress Sienna Miller in London. Miller told Britain’s phone-hacking trial on Friday Jan. 31 2014 she had a “brief encounter” with James Bond star Daniel Craig, but insists a British tabloid misconstrued the nature of the relationship based on a hacked voicemail message. AP

LONDON—British actress Sienna Miller on Friday admitted she had a fling with James Bond star Daniel Craig as she gave evidence at Britain’s phone-hacking trial.

Giving evidence from the United States by video-link, Miller told London’s Old Bailey court that she and Craig had been close, but she attacked “titillating” press reports that they had a full-blown affair while she was dating actor Jude Law in 2005.

“It was a very brief encounter,” she said, speaking from a book-lined room and flanked by an FBI agent.

Miller was giving evidence at the trial of several former executives at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid accused of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages.

Murdoch was forced to shut the paper down in 2011 over revelations that it had hacked the messages of a murdered schoolgirl as well as hundreds of celebrities.

The seven people on trial in London deny charges linked to the scandal.

Former News of the World reporter Dan Evans, who has pleaded guilty to phone-hacking, told the trial this week that he intercepted a message left by Miller to Craig and used this as the basis for a story in October 2005 reporting that the pair were having an affair.

Evans told the court the message said: “Hi, it’s me. Can’t speak. I’m at the Groucho (club) with Jude. I love you.”

Miller told the jury on Friday it was “likely” she had left the message.

“Yes, I had always ended my phone calls to Daniel ‘I love you’ — it was a declaration of friendship,” she said.

“Whether or not I was in a relationship with Daniel Craig at the time, it was a very brief encounter. He was my best friend. My saying ‘I love you’ was nothing new.

“It has been turned into a titillating piece of information. I really regret it was turned into something to be analysed.”