The Daily Mail has been forced to print a formal apology to Harry Potter author JK Rowling and pay out a “substantial” sum in damages over it printed about her as a single mother.
In January, Rowling sued the popular tabloid for libel in relation to false claims it made which suggested that she had told a fake “sob story” about being stigmatised by churchgoers, based on an article she had written for the single parents’ charity Gingerbread.
In the article, Rowling commented on being described by one churchgoer as “The Unmarried Mother” while she worked there, but did not say that she was “taunted” or “stigmatised” as the Daily Mail published in its story on 27 September 2013.
She told the High Court that the story in the Daily Mail had been “misleading”, “unfair”, embarrassing, and injured her reputation.
The newspaper’s apology, printed on page two, said:
“Our September 28, 2013 article ‘How JK’s sob story about her single mother past surprised and confused the church members who cared for her’ suggested that JK Rowling made a knowingly false and inexcusable claim in an article for the Gingerbread charity that people at her church had stigmatised her and cruelly taunted her for being a single mother.
In fact Mrs Rowling recounted only one incident where a visitor to the church stigmatised and taunted her on a particular day. We accept that Ms Rowling’s article did not contain any false claims and apologise for any contrary suggestion and have agreed to pay substantial damages to Ms Rowling, which she is donating to charity, and a contribution to her legal costs.”
