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July 20, 2006updated 22 Nov 2022 8:20pm

Hudson wins climb down and pay-out from Enquirer at High Court

By Press Gazette

Hollywood film star Kate Hudson has won damages and an apology from the UK edition of the National Enquirer after suing in the High Court.

She sued over a story which appeared in the US-based supermarket tabloid last year which implied she had an eating disorder.

The court heard that on 24 October the Enquirer published a two-page article headlied “Goldie tells Kate: Eat Something and she Listens! – Star confronts daughter after photos showing her painfully thin.”

Hudson, who starred in films such as Almost Famous and The Skeleton Key, is the daughter of actors Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.

Hudson solicitor, Simon Smith from Schillings, said: “The article accused the claimant of being ‘way too thin’ asserting that her weight had dropped to a ‘dangerous level’, and that she was ‘looking like skin and bones’.”

He said that Hudson sought an apology, which was not forthcoming, so sued for libel “on the basis that the article conveyed the meaning that she had recklessly and foolishly endangered her health by deliberately starving herself…”.

He said: “The allegations are entirely false and were deeply offensive and embarrassing to the claimant.”

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National Enquirer publisher American Media has settled the case by publishing an apology, and made a statement in open court apologising for the “deep distress and acute embarrassment caused”.

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