Lily Allen awarded libel damages

Lily Allen has accepted "substantial" libel damages over a newspaper story that claimed she had insulted Victoria Beckham, Cheryl Cole and their footballer husbands.

Earlier this year, The Sun reprinted quotes apparently from French publication SoFoot, in which Allen was alleged to have made the comments.

The singer was not present at London's High Court for the settlement of the action, where the newspaper's solicitor Mike Patrick offered its sincere apologies for the embarrassment and upset caused, Sky News reports.

Allen's solicitor Mark Thompson told Mr Justice Eady that News Group Newspapers had accepted that she had not been interviewed by the magazine and did not make the statements in question.

The company agreed to withdraw the allegations, apologise and pay Allen's damages and legal costs.

The popstar first denied the reports on her Twitter page and the tabloid printed an apology for the original article last month.

The newspaper said: "In May we reported in Bizarre that Lily Allen had made various offensive remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole in an interview with a magazine.

"We now accept that Lily didn't say these things to the magazine and we apologise to Lily for the upset and embarrassment caused by repeating them."