- NEW: Rebekah Brooks is grilled over her friendship with Prime Minister David Cameron
- Brooks says she became friendly with Tony Blair, less so with Gordon Brown
- She is a former editor of Rupert Murdoch's The Sun and News of the World newspapers
- The judicial inquiry was set up in the wake of a hacking scandal at the News of the World
London (CNN) -- Rebekah Brooks, a former newspaper editor and News Corp. executive, told a UK inquiry into press ethics Friday that she had received commiserations from Prime Minister David Cameron when she resigned last summer.
Brooks said the message, along the lines of "keep your head up," was among a number of "indirect messages" of sympathy sent to her by top politicians.
Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., in July amid public outrage over claims of widespread hacking by staff at its News of the World newspaper.
The government-appointed Leveson Inquiry, set up in response to the accusations of phone hacking by the News of the World, is examining the relationship between Britain's media and politics.
Brooks was editor of News of the World in 2002 when the newspaper hacked the voice mail of a missing schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who was later found dead. The hacking scandal led to the paper's closure in 2011. Brooks then edited The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily tabloid, from 2003 to 2009.
Appearing confident and composed as she testified Friday, Brooks told the inquiry she had received some "indirect messages" of sympathy on her resignation from 10 Downing Street, 11 Downing Street, the Home Office and the Foreign Office.
A "very few" Labour politicians sent messages of commiseration, said Brooks, who is known for her close ties to Murdoch.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair sent her a message, but his successor Gordon Brown did not, she said.
Blair's Labour Party benefited from the support of The Sun in three elections, but the paper switched allegiance to the Conservatives before the 2010 election in which Brown lost power.
In 2009, "we were running out of ways to support Mr. Brown's government," Brooks said, explaining what lay behind the paper's shift to Cameron in September that year.
Cameron was a family friend of her husband's, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, before she also became his friend, Rebekah Brooks said. The couple live near Cameron's constituency home and have socialized with him.
She was also questioned about a meeting between the Murdoch family and the Camerons in Greece in 2008.
Brooks' testimony about the contacts she had with Britain's current and former prime ministers could prove embarrassing to them if it reveals too close a relationship.
Cameron himself has said the relationship between the media and politicians has become "too cozy." He is expected to appear before the inquiry in the coming weeks.
At the inquiry Friday, Brooks downplayed the role of the newspaper editor in shaping public opinion, saying the coverage of The Sun was led by the concerns of its readers.
Asked if there was a danger that her newspaper got too close to those in power and their "spin doctors," Brooks said the job of journalists was to question what they were told.
She acknowledged becoming friendly with Blair by the end of his decade in power but said she was less friendly with his successor as prime minister, Brown. She was more friends with Brown's wife, Sarah, Brooks said.
She had known Blair for more than a decade, she said, with many social and political meetings in the time he was prime minister. They also spoke on the phone and had dinners together.
Questioned about her working relationship with Murdoch, Brooks said he was instrumental in her appointment as editor of The Sun.
He would speak to her "very frequently" in that role, she said, sometimes every day, or less frequently when business elsewhere was taking up his time.
His interest in the News of the World was much more limited than at The Sun or The Times, she said.
A surprise party for her 40th birthday was held for her at Murdoch's home, she said. Blair was present at the party, but Brooks said she was not sure if Cameron had been there.
Brooks has been arrested twice and released on bail in connection with police investigations into the scandal. She denies any knowledge of phone hacking on her watch.
The ongoing investigations mean questioning on the issue of phone hacking will be limited, so as not to prejudice them or any future trial, and the inquiry will likely focus on her ties to politicians.
Sky News reported Friday ahead of the hearing that Blair had sent a text message to Rebekah Brooks urging her to apologize ahead of her appearance at parliamentary hearing into phone hacking in 2011.
A spokesman for Blair, Ciaran Ward, told CNN he was not able to confirm whether Blair texted Brooks at that point or not, "but if he did he didn't do it in those terms."
Testifying before a parliamentary committee on phone hacking last summer, Brooks said she was aware the newspaper used private detectives but said she had never paid a policeman or sanctioned a payment to the police.
Brooks' appearance at the Leveson Inquiry comes a day after fellow ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who became director of communications for Cameron, took to the stand.
Critics have questioned Cameron's judgment in hiring Coulson after he quit the paper and asked why he was not subjected to more rigorous security vetting.
Coulson resigned as Cameron's spokesman in January 2011 when police opened a new investigation into the scandal. He insisted he was innocent but said he had become a distraction for the government.
Questioned Thursday, Coulson said the jailing of two News of the World employees over phone hacking in 2007 did come up in discussions with senior party members before he was offered the job.
He told the inquiry he had told them and Cameron what he has said repeatedly -- that he knew nothing about the practice of hacking under his leadership of the paper.
He was not asked to give further assurances after more allegations of past misconduct at News of the World emerged while he was working at 10 Downing Street, he said.
Coulson told the inquiry he continued to hold £40,000 ($64,000) of shares in News Corp. while working for Cameron in opposition and in government but had not considered it a conflict of interest. He had not paid much attention to his financial affairs, he said, because his job kept him busy.
Coulson said he had told Cameron and then-shadow Chancellor George Osborne that his connections to News International would not guarantee the backing of Murdoch's papers.
The Sun switched its allegiance from the Labour Party to Cameron's Conservatives before the 2010 election, which resulted in the formation of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Coulson said he never witnessed a conversation that was "inappropriate" between members of the government and News International.
He also denied direct involvement in discussions of News Corp.'s bid fully to take over British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, and dismissed as a conspiracy theory the suggestion that some kind of deal had been struck by the Conservatives on that takeover in return for Murdoch's support.
CNN's Laura Perez Maestro contributed to this report.
