LONDON (AP) — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks — a pivotal figure in Britain’s tabloid phone hacking saga — said today that Prime Minister David Cameron commiserated with her after she quit in the wake of the scandal.

The 43-year-old Brooks, who resigned in July as chief executive of News International, Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operation, told the country’s media ethics inquiry of her close ties to those in power.

Known for her striking red curls and meteoric rise from junior employee to editor at News of the World, Brooks acknowledged she had messages of support from politicians including Cameron and ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair when she stepped down.

In evidence offered so far in today’s hearing, Brooks has been questioned on the close ties between British politicians and the press, chiefly Murdoch’s media empire.

Brooks said Cameron is a personal friend and neighbor in the picturesque Cotswolds area of southern England — and acknowledged she even had to offer him advice on text messaging.

After she stepped down amid the phone hacking scandal, Brooks said she had received “indirect messages” of support — text messages sent by the aides of politicians, but relaying their personal thoughts — including from Cameron.

“I received some indirect messages from No. 10, No. 11, the Home Office and Foreign Office,” Brooks said, referring to Cameron, Treasury chief George Osborne and other leading Cabinet members.

She agreed with inquiry lawyer Robert Jay that a message from Cameron had told her to “keep your head up” and expressed regret that he could not be more loyal because of the political pressure he was under over the hacking scandal.

The message was “along those lines, I don’t think they were the exact words,” Brooks said.

Brooks said she and Cameron would trade texts at least once a week, or twice a week during busier periods such as Britain’s 2010 national election.

“He would sign them off ‘DC’ in the main,” said Brooks, who showed composure, and frequent flashes of humor, as she testified.

“Occasionally he would sign them off LOL, ‘lots of love,’ until I told him it meant ‘laugh out loud,’” she said.

Brooks confirmed that she had discussed tabloid phone hacking with Cameron, but “not very often, once or twice … it kept coming up, so we would bring it up.”

Conversations had taken place after the revelations that the News of the World had hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone when she disappeared in 2002.

Public revulsion at the tactics deployed to pursue the schoolgirl led Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July, and saw Cameron set up the ethics inquiry, led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson.

Brooks also detailed about 20 formal meetings with Cameron between 2005 — when he became leader of the then-opposition Conservative Party — and 2011.

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