the High Court has heard. In a witness statement, Sir Elton described the press intrusions - which also included article's about his own health - as "outside even the most basic standards of human decency". The musician and his husband David Furnish are among seven people, including Prince Harry, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, suing the publisher of the newspaper and the Mail on Sunday for breaches of privacy. Their publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), denies all allegations of unlawful information gathering.

The star gave evidence on Friday appearing at the High Court via a video link in a green suit, blue shirt and tie. He told the court the legal case brought by him and Furnish "contains the most horrendous things in the world that you can ever suffer from a privacy point of view".

The couple's claim relates to 10 articles published between 2002 and 2015, which they have said were based on unlawful information gathering. In his statement, Sir Elton said he felt "passionately" about "how wrong it is that such gross invasions could have been inflicted upon us and our family and friends without us ever knowing".

"I have found the Mail's deliberate invasion into my medical health and medical details surrounding the birth of our son Zachary abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency," he wrote in his statement. Sir Elton said that while he had devoted his life to music, "this does not mean deeply personal things which I have a right to deal with in private are fair game". (BBC)