Actor Nikki Sanderson is due to take the stand at the High Court in London to give evidence in her claim against the publisher of The Mirror for alleged unlawful information gathering.
A former star of the long-running TV series Coronation Street, Sanderson, 39, is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming journalists at its titles - which also include The Sunday Mirror and Sunday People - were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called "blagging" or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
Her case is one of four representative claims being heard in London, alongside similar claims brought by the Duke of Sussex, fellow Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and comedian Paul Whitehouse's ex-wife Fiona Wightman.
Sanderson, who played Candice Stowe in Coronation Street between 1999 and 2005, is due to enter the witness box to give evidence on Friday.
Her barrister David Sherborne told the court on Thursday Sanderson only became aware she had a potential claim against MGN after chatting with Hollyoaks co-star Gary Lucy.
He said she had suspected friends, people working on Coronation Street and members of the public of selling stories about her, and therefore "didn't suspect unlawful methods being used" until she spoke to Lucy in about 2019.
Sherborne said Sanderson was "surprised" when Lucy told her that, based on a case he was bringing against MGN at the time, she would "definitely" have a claim.
"Prior to her conversation with Mr Lucy, she had nothing on her mind to do with being hacked," he said.
The barrister said Sanderson, who filed her claim in December 2020, says she had never heard about the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, knew that the News Of The World had closed but not why, and had no knowledge of the previous High Court phone-hacking trial in 2015.
Sherborne told the court Sanderson had been an actress "for most of her life", first appearing in the long-running soap when she was aged 15.
"Indeed, she would say she grew up on the show until she left in 2005," he said.
Sherborne said Sanderson's claim spanned a period of 10 years from 1999 and that she complains about 37 articles in Mirror titles.
He told the court MGN had admitted unlawful information in relation to one story from October 2004 and made admissions its journalists instructed private investigators to unlawfully obtain information on four occasions.
MGN has previously denied 35 of the 37 articles involved phone hacking or unlawful information gathering, with one article being not admitted.
Sherborne said MGN had apologised to Sanderson for the "first time" in a document submitted for the trial, adding this was "despite the fact that her claim has been going on for three years".