Peaches Geldof Wins Libel Damages Over Newspaper Story

Peaches Geldof has collected a substantial undisclosed sum in libel damages over a newspaper story which implied she was a £5,000 a night prostitute.

The 20-year-old model brought proceedings against Express Newspapers over a front page story in The Daily Star in September 2008.

The report falsely accused the daughter of Bob Geldof and the late Paula Yates of accepting cash for sexual services.

After Geldof went to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), the tabloid agreed the headline used implied she “provided services of a personal sexual nature for the payment of a fee”.

However the paper did not retract what was published and printed an apology on page two, not on the front page.

Geldof felt this was “unacceptable, as it was not, in her view, adequately prominent”, her solicitor Jonathan Coad said.

At London’s High Court, Express Newspapers was asked to withdraw the allegations unreservedly and to apologise publicly to Geldof for the distress caused to her by the story.

“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,” the newspaper’s solicitor Zoe Norden told the court.

In addition to the libel damages, the publication agreed to pay her legal costs.