Keira Knightley Accepts Settlement in Libel Claim Against UK Tabloid

Friday, May 25, 2007

Keira Knightley has agreed to accept a $6,500 settlement in her libel claim against British tabloid, the Daily Mail, over a misleading story and accompanying picture of the female celebrity. The tabloid published a story that suggested Knightley was the cause of the death of an anorexic teenager. In addition to suggestions of liability in the teenager’s death, they also falsely suggested that Keira Knightley also had an eating disorder, suggestive of anorexia.

Kate Wilson, legal counsel for Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, reported to a court on Thursday the newspaper has agreed that Knightley was in no way directly or indirectly responsible for the teenager’s death and that Knightley does not have an eating disorder and thus has not in any way misled the public on the issue.

The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed over a photo of Knightley in a bikini that the Daily Mail published in January. The photo included the headline: “If pictures like this one of Keira carried a health warning, my darling daughter might have lived.”

According to Knightley’s lawyer, Simon Smith, anyone who read the article could interpret it to mean that she was personally responsible for the death of Sophie Mazurek, a 19-year old anorexic, whose death was the direct result of the eating disorder.

Keira Knightley did not appear in court, but sources confirm that she intends to donate the proceeds from the settlement to Beat, a charity for those with eating disorders and mental illnesses.