Entertainment Cruise and Kidman win libel case

 

Tom Cruise outside the High Court on Thursday

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and his wife Nicole Kidman have won their court action against a tabloid newspaper.

The couple, who met when they worked together on the movie Days of Thunder in 1990 and were married the same year, sued the Express newspaper for allegations that their marriage was a sham, designed to cover up their homosexuality.
On Thursday Cruise and Kidman accepted substantial, undisclosed libel damages in the High Court in London over the allegations.
Cruise, 36, who was present in court, had sued over an article in the Express on Sunday Magazine which also alleged that the actor, who together with his wife has adopted two children, was impotent and sterile.
George Carman, QC, counsel for Cruise, told Mr Justice Eady: "The article recycled a selection of wholly unfounded rumours about the plaintiffs of a highly offensive nature.
"In summary, it alleged that their marriage was a hypocritical sham, entered into as a mere business arrangement or on the orders of the Church of Scientology or as a cover-up for the homosexuality of one or both of them and that Tom Cruise was impotent and sterile and that his public denial of this was untrue."

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The movie star, flanked by lawyers and police, was mobbed by fans and female court staff as he left Court 14, but waited to sign autographs before making his way to the front entrance of the Law Courts.
Outside the court, he said: "I don't take a whole lot of pleasure in being here today. It is the last recourse against those that published vicious lies about me and my family.
"I have to protect them. This was certainly not about money. Every penny of this very substantial sum will be donated to charities."
Express Newspapers apologised for the article and is believed to have paid damages in excess of �,000 to each of the two actors and their legal costs of �,000.
An Express spokeswoman later denied that the couple received in excess of �,000 each and said that the total compensation "is in the region of a six figure sum".