Whispers rippled through the court in the moments before Prince Harry’s lawyer sensationally revealed a settlement had been reached with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

In a last minute deal made the day after the lawsuit was due to start, Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers agreed to pay “substantial damages” to Prince Harry and issued an apology, read by his lawyer David Sherborne, of the “serious intrusion by The Sun into his private life … including the unlawful gathering” of information on him.

Prince Harry settled his phone hacking case against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers on Wednesday, receiving an apology from the company and damages, his attorney told the British high court.