LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Harry, Britain's Duke of Sussex, has accepted substantial damages and an apology from a news agency which took photographs of his home from the air, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.
Harry's lawyer said Splash News and Picture Agency had chartered a helicopter in January to take photos and film the private home of Harry and his wife Meghan, a former American actress, in Oxfordshire, central England.
"The syndication and publication of the photographs very seriously undermined the safety and security of the Duke and the home to the extent that they are no longer able to live at the property," the lawyer said in a court statement.
"The property had been chosen by the Duke for himself and his wife given the high level of privacy it afforded, given its position in a secluded area surrounded by private farmland away from any areas to which photographers have access."
Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, and Meghan, have a strained relationship with the press and after the birth of their first child earlier this month avoided posing for the traditional photo outside the hospital.
This did not go down well with some of the British media, which lamented the decision as a departure from more than 40 years of tradition.
Harry has never made a secret of his dislike of the media since his mother Princess Diana was killed in a crash in 1997 as her car sped away from chasing photographers.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Stephen Addison)