Prince Harry has won a Pyrrhic victory over the Sun

So, in the end, Prince Harry folded. His much-ballyhooed case about News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun, which was due to begin in the High Court today and last for eight weeks, has concluded. The writing was on the wall yesterday, when Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne and News Group Newspapers’ barrister Anthony Hudson appeared to be inching towards a settlement, which has now duly occurred.

The no doubt considerable financial terms have not been disclosed. But as part of the agreement, NGN has issued a series of “full and unequivocal” apologies to the Duke of Sussex for “the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life”, “the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World”, “for the impact of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother” and “for the distress caused to the Duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friends and family.