Author JK Rowling has been “fully vindicated and her reputation restored” following a newspaper’s apology for alleging she wrote a sob story containing false claims about her time as a single mother, London’s High Court has heard.

A judge was told the publisher of Britain’s Daily Mail has accepted the allegations were “completely false and indefensible”, published an apology and undertaken not to repeat them.

Associated Newspapers Ltd has also agreed to pay the creator of Harry Potter substantial damages, which she is donating to charity, and to contribute to her legal costs, her lawyer said.

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Solicitor-advocate Keith Schilling read out a two-page statement saying the newspaper allegations left the author understandably distressed but she was now happy to bring her libel proceedings – lodged in the name Joanne Kathleen Murray – to a close.

Justice Warby agreed they should be ended and the record withdrawn.

On September 18, 2013, Rowling wrote an article for the website of Gingerbread, the single parents’ charity, on her own experience as a single mother in Edinburgh while writing the first of the Harry Potter books.

She described only one instance where a visitor stigmatised her when she was working at her church.

Mr Schilling said at no point did Rowling criticise or complain about her treatment at the hands of fellow churchgoers.

Ten days after her article, on September 28, the Daily Mail published its own lengthy, two-page article with the headline: “How JK Rowling’s sob story about her single mother past surprised and confused the church members who cared for her”.

The Mail Online also published the article.

For several months, Associated Newspapers denied that their article was capable of defaming Rowling.

In December 2013, libel proceedings were launched and the following month the publisher accepted the allegations were false.