THE STARS WHO USED THEIR WEALTH TO HIDE THEIR AFFAIRS
A large number of household names have secured injunctions to hide their affairs – often using their families and children as a reason to keep their extramarital sex secret.
Here are the ones we still cannot name:
The married celebrity
Known as PJS, or the ‘olive oil bath threesome’ celebrity, his case is about to decided by the Supreme Court – after lower courts initially refused him a privacy injunction because his cheating contradicted his public portrayal of married commitment.
Elton John and husband who had the affair, David Furnish
The star footballer
Household name who used an injunction to hush up claims he cheated on his partner with another celeb.
Acting star
Leading actor, married, a father. Cheated on his wife with Helen Wood, same prostitute who slept with Wayne Rooney. Helen Wood claims she had sexual relationship with the actor, whom she met through an acquaintance.
The ‘figure of trust’
A high profile celebrity woman described as a ‘figure of trust’ was granted an injunction in Manchester in May last year to prevent her lover from leaking details of her affair with a famous married man to the press.
The football manager
A married Premier League boss is currently threatening to gag The Sun over an alleged secret lover. He is the same manager who previously won a court order banning revelations about another affair.
The ‘high profile figure’
Obtained an injunction to stop a woman revealing details of sexual encounters which took place in his home, because it would be ‘very distressing for his family’ to hear of them.
The top footballer
Married with children, the Premier League star took out an injunction to stop his philandering becoming known.
The ‘world famous sportsman’
A multimillionaire sportsman – not a footballer – he is married and a father, but won an order to suppress any suggestions of an ‘extra marital affair’.
The TV celebrity
The household name star and ‘family’ man was allowed to suppress ‘intimate’ photos of him with a woman with a permanent gagging order – previously reserved for killer children – and the woman was even told she had a ‘duty of confidence’ to the celebrity.
The entertainer
A well-known married man working in the entertainment industry who had an affair with a colleague.
Hugh Bonniville
The Premier League star
An international star with a long-standing partner, he hushed up claims of ‘illicit sex’ with a woman.
And the ones we can name..
Gary Flitcroft
2001 – won injunction
Flitcroft, millionaire father of a seven-month-old daughter, spent £200,000 on his court battle to stop a Sunday newspaper publishing details of his secret relationships with a lapdancer and nursery nurse.
It ended in 2002 when the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, turned down a final plea from the player’s lawyers for his anonymity to be continued after learning that Flitcroft himself had negotiated with another newspaper to sell his version of events.
He had also told his wife, Karen, something about the affairs.
Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler
2003 – failed injunction
Liverpool stars tried to block claims they had threesome with girl.
David Beckham
2004 – failed injunction
Ordered lawyers to seek injunction against Sky broadcasting Rebecca Loos interview, but no injunction was granted. His former personal assistant claimed she had a four-month affair with him.
Beckham’s lawyers said she was breaking a confidentiality agreement.
Andrew Marr
18 January 2008 – won injunction
Andrew Marr used a gagging order to hush up an extra-marital affair- and was the first public figure voluntarily to admit trying to conceal his infidelity.
Mr Marr won a High Court injunction in January 2008 to suppress reports of a relationship with a fellow journalist five years earlier.
At the time, he believed he had fathered a child with the woman. He also made maintenance payments – until he discovered through a DNA test that he was not the girl’s father.
John Terry
25 Jan 2010 – injunction ordered – scrapped four days later
The Chelsea skipper is claimed to have cheated behind his wife’s back. The England captain married Toni Poole in 2007.
The Mail on Sunday claimed French model Vanessa Perroncel, the former partner of fellow England defender Wayne Bridge, had an abortion within months of the affair starting.
The Chelsea star had initially used human rights laws to obtain a gagging order against the press, claiming his right to a ‘private and family life’.
But the judge who threw out the order said he thought Terry was more concerned about the threat to his lucrative sponsorship deals.
Jeremy Clarkson
6 Oct 2010 – injunction granted
Jeremy Clarkson lifted his own a gagging order preventing his ex-wife from claiming they had an affair after he remarried.
The Top Gear presenter won an injunction last year banning Alex Hall from revealing intimate details of their relationship, including allegations that they had sex after Clarkson wed his second wife Francie.
At the time the father of three could be described only as ‘a married TV star’ and his first wife’s identity was kept secret as he became the latest figure to use the courts to protect his privacy.
Clarkson decided to unmask himself after concluding: ‘Injunctions don’t work – it’s pointless
Ryan Giggs
14 April 2011 – injunction granted in High Court
Ryan Giggs paid the price for his secrecy battle as Parliament launched a dramatic fightback against the judiciary.
John Hemming’s intervention in 2011, applauded by fellow MPs, ended the Manchester United star’s fight to maintain his reputation as a faithful husband – despite an alleged affair with model Imogen Thomas.
Less than 24 hours earlier, 37-year-old Giggs had presented his wife Stacey and two young children to a 76,000-strong crowd at Old Trafford and a global television audience.
It later emerged he had an affair with his brother’s wife – and his wife Stacey left him this year after allegations he flirted with a PR girl.
