A local news website in Kent has apologised in court to the ex-husband of former glamour model Katie Price over an article that wrongly gave the impression he had hacked into her phone.
KM Media Group’s Kent Online wrote in October 2017 that Price’s phone had been hacked from Sittingbourne in the county after she tweeted: “Now somebody from Sittingbourne is trying to hack me!”
But the publisher came unstuck because of the last line of the story, now deleted but viewable using the archive website the Wayback Machine, which noted: “Meanwhile, her ex-husband Alex Reid is starring in this year’s pantomine in Sittingbourne.”
MMA star Reid (pictured), who was preparing to play the role of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, sued for defamation but has now settled the claim after receiving an apology in open court.
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The publisher also agreed to pay Reid damages and costs.
KM Media Group acknowledged the article “could have been understood to mean that Mr Reid was the person responsible for attempting to hack her phone,” according to a statement read at the High Court by barrister Chloe Strong on Thursday.
The publisher “accepts that this impression would have been entirely false; there were no grounds whatsoever for believing that Mr Reid had attempted to hack Ms Price’s phone”.
“The defendant wishes to apologise to Mr Reid for the distress and damage which it has caused him and his family.”
Picture: PA Wire/Aine Fox
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