THE magazine OK! yesterday won its long court battle with rival Hello! over the wedding pictures of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas.
The House of Lords ruled that Hello! had breached OK!'s confidentiality when it published unauthorised photographs of the ceremony at New York's Plaza Hotel in 2000.
The Hollywood stars, who were not involved in the House of Lords case, were paid £1 million by OK! for exclusive coverage of the wedding.
The couple, together with OK!
, sued Hello! when it ran pictures taken at the wedding by a photographer posing as a guest or waiter.
Three out of five Law Lords found in OK!
's favour over confidentiality but lawyers for Hello! said the victory was soured by a finding that Hello! had not knowingly injured OK!
's business.
This meant, said the lawyers, that the estimated £8 million costs were expected to be shared by the two magazines.
The Douglases and OK!
won at the High Court in April 2003 but an award of £1 million damages was quashed after Hello! successfully went to the Court of Appeal in May 2005.
The damages award will now be reinstated.
Zeta-Jones told the High Court hearing she felt "devastated, shocked and appalled" when she realised that photographers had gatecrashed her high-security wedding.
The £14,600 damages awarded to the couple by the High Court for the distress the Hello! coverage caused them was not challenged at the Court of Appeal.
Hello! argued at the five-day Lords hearing that any confidentiality ceased after OK! published its coverage of the wedding, while OK!
claimed Hello!'s coverage was unlawful interference with its business or a breach of its right to confidentiality in the images.
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