Elvis Presley’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley is heading for a High Court showdown with Associated Newspapers over a story illustrated with an unflattering photograph.
Presley complains that as a result of the story, which suggested her weight had ballooned so much she had become obese, she was forced to reveal her pregnancy.
Now the singer and songwriter is suing Associated Newspapers for unlimited libel damages of more than £300,000 over the page three story in the Daily Mail in March.
The newspaper story was headed: ‘Lisa Marie is growing just like her dad’and the paper’s online version was called ‘Like father like daughter? Bloated Lisa Marie is now the double of dad Elvis”.
Presley says her personal and professional reputation was seriously injured, and that she suffered extreme hurt, embarrassment, and distress. And the sting of the story was repeated on various entertainment, celebrity and gossip websites, she says.
Presley is seeking aggravated damages, saying the piece was gratuitously vicious and offensive, and referred to the tragic and untimely death of her father who died obese when he was just two years older than she is now.
She found the allegations about her weight at such a sensitive time in her life, now she is pregnant, especially distressing and hurtful, and says the captions describing her as having ‘piled on the pounds”, being ‘bloated’and ‘spotty’and ‘shuffling’amounted to particularly nasty attacks on her.
Presley complains that a large close-up of her face in mid mouthful was chosen because of how extremely unflattering it was to her, and that pictures were taken without her content with a long lens as she privately went about her business with family and friends.
She felt obliged to reveal her pregnancy to defend herself after the story, although she would have preferred to keep her pregnancy private for as long as possible, according to a High Court writ. Now she is seeking damages and aggravated damages for libel as well as an injunction banning repetition of the allegations at the centre of her claim. The writ was issued by Schillings.
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