Elton John gives statement in Mail privacy lawsuit and accuses publisher of “gross invasions”
Sir Elton John has given his statement in court amid the lawsuit against the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday for breaches of privacy.
The iconic musician and his husband, David Furnish, are among seven people, including Elizabeth Hurley, Prince Harry, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, to sue the publisher of the newspapers for actions John has now deemed “outside even the most basic standards of human decency”.
As per the BBC, John appeared at the High Court via video, adorned in a green suit, a blue shirt, and a blue tie. He gave a statement which pertained to their breach of his family’s privacy, mostly in relation to the birth of his son Zachary, in 2010.
He told the courts that the legal case the couple have brought forward “contains the most horrendous things in the world that you can ever suffer from a privacy point of view”.
Further, in relation to the ten articles published between 2000 and 2015, John said he felt “passionately” about “how wrong it is that such gross invasions could have been inflicted upon us and our family and friends without us ever knowing”.
He added, “I have found the Mail’s deliberate invasion into my medical health and medical details surrounding the birth of our son Zachary abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency.”
The ‘Rocketman’ singer stressed that his work in the music industry “does not mean deeply personal things which I have a right to deal with in private are fair game”.
As such, the papers and their publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), John alleges, used the “exploitation of love, connection, trust and bonds to find out information shared in confidence.”
He added that the “invisibility of such evil acts” meant he and Furnish were unable to detect them.
When asked by Catrin Evans, representing Associated Newspapers Limited, whether John and his husband complained at the time, he stated, “I can’t remember.”
He continued, “We did not know the extent of the seriousness of what had gone on. When we knew the seriousness of what had gone on, we took action, because we were outraged.”
The court also heard that one of the stories in discussion contained publication of their son Zachary’s birth certificate before the couple had even received it, though the publisher’s lawyers argued that the story was “entirely legitimately” sourced.
Evans also argued that one of the articles included in the suit, titled ‘Sick Elton cancels more tour dates’ and published in 2009, followed a statement on his website.
Elton fired back: “That may be the case, but we didn’t disclose in the statement on the website my illness or why I was cancelling the tour.” As such, he argued, journalists were “presuming I had something I didn’t have”, but said “I had something far more serious.”
The musician was allowed to give evidence remotely, due to his worsening eyesight; he shared with the court that it “would have been very difficult” for him to appear physically.
See his latest post on Instagram below.
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