Russell Brand is suing the Sun on Sunday for libel over claims that he cheated on girlfriend Jemima Khan with a glamour model.
The story “Russell cheated on his Jemima with me” was published in the Sun on Sunday across pages 1, 4 and 5 on 17 November 2013.
According to Brand’s legal team, the newspaper “boldly promoted” the story as an exclusive containing the defamatory claim “32H model’s shock for Khan”.
The comedian, actor and writer is seeking unspecified damages from News UK.
They suggest the newspaper only approached Brand’s representatives “a matter of hours” before deadline not giving them “proper notice and thereby sufficient opportunity to respond”.
According to documents lodged with the High Court, along with the words, the newspaper printed a large photograph of Sophie Coady (pictured above Credit: Sophie Coady) alongside a smaller inset picture of Khan.
“In their natural and ordinary and/or inferential meaning, the words complained of meant and were understood to mean that the claimant had deliberately deceived the general public, as well as his girlfriend Jemima Khan, by falsely proclaiming that he was being faithful to Ms Khan when in fact he was repeatedly cheating on her by having sex with Sophie Coady during a four-month fling with the glamour model whilst he was in a committed relationship with Ms Khan.”
Brand’s legal team said as well as the print edition, “a substantial but necessarily unquantifiable number of readers” accessed the story online.
It is claimed that as a result of the story, Brand “has been caused considerable injury to his reputation” and has “suffered significant hurt, distress and embarrassment”.
According to the document: “Despite its self-evidently defamatory and offensive nature, the defendant only sought ot put the allegation to the claimant’s PR agent a matter of hours before the print deadline, notwithstanding the fact the newspaper must have already been preparing the story for some considerable time.”
Brand’s legal team said: “In the circumstances, the claimant will invite the jury to infer that this lack of notice was a deliberate choice by the defendant who had decided that they would run this ‘exclusive’ story regardless.
“The claimant will refer in his regard to the sensation manner in which the story was splashed across the front page of the newspaper, with the highly provocative headline ‘Russell cheated on his Jemima with me’ printed in blazing three inch-high lettering across the cover.”
Brand’s legal team said as a result of the story, the allegations were picked up by other outlets and repeated across the internet. They also claim that News UK has refused to apologise to Brand or take “proper steps” to mitigate the damage done by the article.
A spokesperson for News UK said: "The Sun stands by its story and is defending this libel action."
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