PA MediaSadie Frost said the Daily Mail put a “price on my head” for stories as she told a court she had been “violated” by journalists allegedly hacking her voicemail for information.
The actress became emotional as she gave evidence in her case against the paper’s publisher – which includes a claim that a reporter learned about her terminated pregnancy through a private investigator.
She told the High Court she knew “100%” that other stories had been obtained through hacking because they matched her voicemails “word for word”. In a written statement, she said the alleged activity had made her believe she “could not trust anyone”.
Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) has denied all wrongdoing in relation to Frost and and six other claimants, including Prince Harry.
In court, Frost accused Mail reporters of bugging a call in 2002 to her then-husband, actor Jude Law, which revealed that her two-year-old daughter had swallowed part of an ecstasy tablet at a children’s party. Frost broke down in tears as she recalled the press attention that followed.
She had been “mortified” when she found out her landline had allegedly been listened to, she said in her statement, adding that it had brought “suffering” to her and her children.
Frost and the other claimants have accused Associated Newspapers of “grave breaches of privacy” over a 20-year period.
Her claim relates to 11 articles and two “episodes” of alleged unlawful information gathering for articles that were not published, including one about her pregnancy.
David Sherborne, representing Frost, said she had discovered she was pregnant in 2003, which was unplanned and later terminated. He said she had only disclosed the termination to the father, Jackson Scott, and “maybe” a close friend.
The barrister claimed Katie Nicholl, then the Mail on Sunday’s showbiz editor, “must” have found out about the situation through unlawful information gathering. He added that her notes referred to a private investigator who had charged her £400.
Antony White KC, for the publisher, said the payment was not linked to the pregnancy and that Nicholl had been told about the pregnancy by a freelance journalist with sources close to Frost.
During cross-examination, Frost told the court: “There was obviously a price on my head. The Daily Mail had said they were interested in Sadie Frost.”
When White suggested that members of Frost’s family had provided information to the press and this would “likely” have encouraged her friends to do the same, Frost said she did not agree.
Concluding her evidence, she said it had been “demanding and very distressing having to relive what I didn’t want to relive”.
She said: “For my children to see what I’ve been going through, it makes me sad – but they’ve been so supportive, and I’ve done it for them.”
Frost said in her written statement that was “so angry” the publisher “thought it was okay to profit from someone going through so much pain without a thought for me or my children”.
She said she did not know she had a potential claim against the publisher until 2019 and that ANL “must be held accountable”.
White argued that Frost’s claims were “wholly without any foundation in the evidence before the court”. He said the stories were sourced “entirely legitimately” and that her social circle was “known to be ‘leaky'”, with family members regularly giving information to the press.
He said the claimants are “clutching at straws” and that the claims have been brought too late.
Privacy cases must usually be brought within six years of the alleged breach, unless victims can show they could not bring a case at the time.
The other claimants in the case against ANL are:
- Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish
- Actress Liz Hurley
- Sir Simon Hughes, the former Liberal Democrat MP
- Baroness Doreen Lawrence, a campaigner whose son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in south London in 1993
They have accused ANL of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” for stories between 1993 and “beyond” 2018, including through private investigators and blagging.
ANL has denied allegations of unlawful information gathering.
The case continues and is expected to last nine weeks.