London, Aug 30 (IANS): The Sun newspaper has paid 'substantial damages' to Ben Stokes and his mother, Deborah, for putting details of a family tragedy in an article published in 2019.

"The tabloid also apologised to the pair, agreed to pay their legal costs and issued a public statement saying the story, about an incident that took place before the cricketer was born, should never have been published," said a report in the Guardian.

The newspaper quoted Deborah as saying, "The decision to publish this article was a decision to expose, and to profit from exposing, intensely private and painful matters within our family. The suffering caused to our family by the publication of this article is something we cannot forgive."

She said she filed a legal case because she didn't want the tabloid to harm other people's lives.

"Ben and I can take no pleasure in concluding this settlement with the Sun. We can only hope that our actions in holding the paper to account will leave a lasting mark, and one that will contribute to prevent other families from having to suffer the same pain as was inflicted on our family by this article," she added.