The settlement comes after a High Court trial was due to start over claims of unlawful intrusion into the royal's life.

Prince Harry has settled his lawsuit against News Group Newspapers, the Rupert Murdoch-owned company that publishes The Sun and previously published now-defunct News of The World. The settlement, announced Wednesday, includes an apology and admission of wrongdoing from NGN.

The Duke of Sussex unexpectedly settled his case against News Group Newspapers over allegations of illegal information gathering on Wednesday, Jan. 222

Prince Harry’s yearslong legal battle against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group took an unexpected turn on Wednesday, after the duke settled his case before the trial was due to get underway.

Prince Harry dramatically settled his five-year-long privacy case with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) Wednesday, moments before the case was due to open in Britain’s high court. NGN issued a “full and unequivocal” apology to Prince Harry,

News Group Newspapers offered a “full and unequivocal apology” to Prince Harry for the “serious intrusion” into his private life by the The Sun between 1996 and 2011.

Prince Harry’s trial against the publisher of The Sun follows two decades of legal drama over the cutthroat practices of the British press in the days when newspapers sold millions of copies and shaped the popular conversation.

Prince Harry has settled his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers (NGN) over alleged unlawful information gathering, his lawyer said on Wednesday, after the media group admitted he had been the victim of unlawful activity.

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The deal means that Harry will not be able to seek a court ruling validating his allegations that News Group Newspapers' journalists went to illegal extremes to dig up dirt on his life and that executives at the company helped cover up the bad acts.