Peaches Geldof has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages and an apology from the Daily Star over a claim she was a prostitute who charged £5,000 a night for sexual services.
The 20-year-old TV presenter and model brought proceedings at London’s High Court today over a front page story that appeared in the Star, in September, headlined “Peaches: Spend the night with me for £5k”.
Geldof’s solicitor, Jonathan Coad, told Justice Eady the second daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates initially went to the Press Complaints Commission about the article.
Coad told the court the newspaper’s publisher, Express Newspapers, acknowledged the headline implied Geldof “provided services of a personal sexual nature for the payment of a fee”.
He said: “The defendant refused to publish a retraction and apology on its front page but instead published it on page two.
“As the publication was substantially smaller, the claimant considered this to be unacceptable as it was not, in her view, adequately prominent.
“The Press Complaints Commission adjudicated upon the prominence and found it to be proportionate.
“It is for this reason that the claimant now wishes to make this statement in open court to make the falsity of this allegation a matter of public record.”
Coad said Express Newspapers was represented in court by its solicitor, Zoe Norden, to withdraw the allegations and to apologise publicly to Geldof for the distress caused to her by publication of the article.
It had also paid her a substantial sum by way of damages and agreed to pay her legal costs, he said.
Norden said: “The defendant accepts that there is no truth in the allegation made in the article, and apologises to the claimant for any distress caused by the publication.”
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