Kiss and tell litigation case ends with confidential payout

The litigation involving a celebrity who fought to keep his name out of a tabloid “kiss-and-tell” story about his alleged extra-marital sexual encounters has come to an end with the payment of a confidential “specified sum”.

In May, the Supreme Court ruled that The Sun on Sunday should be barred from revealing the identity of the man referred to only as PJS.

It said that the information was private, there was no public interest in its disclosure and that, while secrecy and confidentiality may have been compromised by publicity, a court was unlikely to find that PJS’s right to privacy was defeated by that fact.

Publishers News Group Newspapers (NGN) won the first round of the privacy dispute in January when a High Court judge refused to impose an injunction, but the case went to the highest court in the land after appeal judges said the ban should be lifted.

At the High Court in London yesterday, Mr Justice Warby said that PJS and NGN had agreed a final order in the action for breach of confidence and misuse of private information.

The proceedings were “stayed” on the basis that NGN pay a “specified sum” in full and final settlement of PJS’s claim for damages and costs.

NGN also agreed to give undertakings not to use, disclose or publish certain information and to remove and not republish certain existing articles.

The undertakings extended to not publishing any information which identified or was liable to identify PJS as a party to the action, including identifying his partner or three other individuals.