US singer Madonna has accepted a substantial sum in undisclosed damages from the Mail of Sunday after it published pictures of her wedding to Guy Ritchie.

The newspaper admitted breach of privacy and copyright infringement after it printed ten pictures from her wedding to the director at Skibo Castle in Scotland in December 2000.

The Vogue star was not at London’s High Court to hear the settlement of her action against Associated Newspapers and is to donate the damages to her Raising Malawi charity.

The pictures were printed in the paper on October 19th last year, just three days after Madonna announced she was to divorce the Snatch director.

The singer’s solicitor John Kelly told Mr Justice Peter Smith his client had gone to great pains to ensure the privacy of her wedding.

However, in 2003, photographs were "surreptitiously" copied by an interior designer who was working at the Material Girl’s Beverly Hills home.

The designer provided the photos to Bonnie Robinson who offered them for sale to the British newspaper in June 2008, though no purchase was completed until Madonna and Richie had announced their divorce.

Niri Shan, representing Associated Newspapers, said it was wrong of the Mail on Sunday to publish the previously private photographs and offered the newspaper’s sincere apologies to Madonna and her family for invading her privacy and infringing her copyright.

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