Pop star Elton John testified in London’s High Court on Friday, accusing the publisher of two UK tabloids of “abhorrent” privacy violations that “go beyond even the most basic standards of human decency.”
John testified on Sunday in the joint lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the company that publishes the Daily Mail and The Mail, alleging that the publications had illegally obtained his and his family’s medical information.
Actor Liz Hurley and Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, are among the other complainants in the case.
As he started testifying via video link, he wrote in a witness statement, “I have found The Mail’s deliberate invasion into my medical health and medical details surrounding the birth of our son Zachary abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency.”
The 78-year-old musician, who has a tense relationship with British tabloids, seemed irate as he testified, dressed in a purple tie and green blazer.
He and his spouse, David Furnish, testified Thursday, accusing the UK publisher of obtaining information for ten pieces from 2000 to 2015 through illegal ways.
During the first two weeks of the trial, Prince Harry and Hurley, a friend of the couple, both testified.
Actor Sadie Frost and two other famous figures are among the seven claimants suing ANL.
John told the trial, which is in its third week and is anticipated to go until March, that the case “contains the most horrendous things in the world that you can ever suffer from a privacy point of view.”
According to John, “all three” of the family’s landlines—including the junction box at the end of the road—were compromised.
According to John, who told the court that he has “never been afraid of fighting my corner… with the British press,” he was furious.
ANL has retorted that the allegations regarding the use of private investigators were “clutching at straws in the wind” and that proof will demonstrate that it sourced its reports properly.
According to publisher attorney Catrin Evans, a “certain amount of the information… had already been put into the public domain” for some of the Mail pieces that were mentioned in the lawsuit.
“I have dedicated my life to my music, but this does not mean that deeply personal things that I have a right to deal with in private are fair game,” John stated in his written witness testimony.
“Seeing Zachary as a target when he was just born, David and me as targets, and me as a target when I was ill and unwell has been incredibly upsetting for David and me,” he said.
