Ashley Cole’s mother Susan has kicked off a legal battle with Reveal magazine claiming that the title put words into her mouth.
Susan Cole, 51, is demanding damages of more than £300,000 from publishers National Magazine Co and accuses the magazine of false attribution. The dispute centres around a story headed ‘Cheryl and Ashley are back together – says his mum’and a blog post on Reveal’s website.
Cole’s mother denies that she ever spoke to the magazine or its journalist nor spoke the words attributed to her, and says she declined to answer any questions asked by a journalist who appeared, unannounced and unsolicited, at a friend’s home.
The journalist refused to give her name or identify the publications for whom she was working, according to a High Court writ.
Mrs Cole accuses Reveal of infringing her right not to have a literary work falsely attributed to her. She says she has never spoken to any journalist or given any interviews about her son’s marriage to Cheryl Tweedy. She said she has not commented on media speculation about whether they were ‘back together’or not, confirmation of which she admitted was an extremely valuable and newsworthy commodity.
Given her deliberate refusal to comment on her son’s marriage, she was extremely distressed and embarrassed by the story, she claimed. Cole said the suggestion she had spoken about private matters to a gossip magazine was both offensive and highly intrusive into her private life.
She accuses the magazine of fabricating the story and of flagrantly disregarding her moral and legal rights to increase sales.
Reveal has refused to publish a correction or apology, and has effectively branded her a liar, seriously aggravating the injury to her, she claims.
She fears that unless restrained by the court, the magazine will repeat the story or similar false attributions, and seeks damages, and an injunction banning the magazine from repeating the allegations at the centre of her claim.
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