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.

Rupert Murdoch shut down his News of the World tabloid after revelations about hacking, but his News Group Newspapers has denied broader wrongdoing at that outlet or any wrongdoing at the Sun tabloid. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Prince Harry broke cover Tuesday for the first time since he won a multimillion-dollar settlement and a “full and unequivocal apology” from Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which admitted that the Sun tabloid infringed his privacy using illegal methods and also apologized for “serious intrusion” into the private life of his late mother,