It was going to take something dramatic to encourage Prince Harry to settle.
That was abundantly clear in everything he’s said in the run up to this trial, and not purely from a personal point of view.
As one of the last men standing, the Duke of Sussex felt it was his responsibility to bring justice and accountability for the thousands of people he feels had also been maliciously targeted and tormented by The Sun and the News Of The World. He felt he was their last hope.
The apology from News Group Newspapers (NGN) is far reaching. Reading it, you get the impression Harry and his legal team made the publisher’s lawyers work hard to get it over the line.
Being in court on Tuesday, as both sides asked for more time for negotiations, that certainly seemed the case.
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The apology for unlawful activities at The Sun, albeit, they say, by private investigators and not journalists, is something we have never heard before.
The apology to Princess Diana is particularly unexpected. It gets to the heart of one of the overriding reasons Harry refused to give in: his anger at what he perceives these publications did to him, his mother and his wider family.
It has stopped him having his moment in court. He was pencilled in to give evidence and be cross examined for three days.
Inevitably it will be a relief in some ways for other members of his family – who knows what may have come out in court?
Harry said his father called taking on the tabloids a suicide mission and we know Prince William accepted a settlement from NGN.
You wonder if despite their differences, they will acknowledge that his perseverance paid off.
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We now wait to see if this has brought him some sense of peace. But this was an apology for past wrongdoings.
We know Harry still has significant issues with how he feels he is treated by the press now, and he’s spoken of feeling that he and Meghan have faced intimidation from the papers, because of his decision to pursue them in the courts.
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What happens next after the settlement?
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This will be a moment to celebrate, both with the extent of the apology and a chance to publicly shout for further investigations.
But knowing the man Harry is, and his conviction to do what he thinks is morally right, it is unlikely to be the end of what has always been the most personal of crusades.
