London  - A newspaper Friday issued an unreserved apology to Britain's royal family for wrongly reporting earlier this week that Prince Philip, the 87-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was suffering from prostate cancer.

In an unusual step, London's Evening Standard newspaper said on its front page Friday that the "distressing allegation" was untrue and constituted a breach of privacy.

In its apology, the paper said the duke was "not suffering from any such condition."

"We unreservedly apologize both to him and to his family for making this distressing allegation and for breaching his privacy," it said.

Buckingham Palace welcomed the apology and the Press Complaints Commission, to which the matter had been referred, said the issue was now settled. (dpa)