Paul Gascoigne’s ex-wife Sheryl has accepted libel damages from The People over a claim that she prevented her former husband from seeing their son Regan.
Ms Gascoigne was at London’s High Court on Friday for the settlement of her action against Mirror Group Newspapers, owner of The People, over an article which appeared in December last year.
The story, headed “Gazza heartache: Star in new booze fear after rift with son”, was untrue, her solicitor, Roddy Chisholm-Batten, told Justice Tugendhat during the hearing.
The article suggested that Ms Gascoigne had refused to speak to her ex-husband and deliberately changed her telephone numbers to prevent him seeing Regan over Christmas, and that it was feared that Gascoigne would revert to heavy drinking as a consequence of her “insensitivity”, the court was told.
Chisholm-Batten said MGN wished to apologise publicly for the distress and embarrassment caused and was paying damages and Ms Gascoigne’s legal costs.
Louise Jacobs, solicitor acting for MGN, apologised on the publisher’s behalf.
Outside court, Ms Gascoigne said: “I’d just like to say that I was disappointed they wouldn’t apologise to Regan also.”
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