Little Britain star Matt Lucas has won substantial damages from Express Newspapers over reports published soon after the suicide of his former partner.
The Jewish actor has accepted an undisclosed sum for articles in the Daily Star in 2009, following the death of Kevin McGee.
The couple had married in a civil partnership in 2006 but were divorced when McGee, 32, was found hanged at his Edinburgh flat in October.
Despite Mr Lucas asking for the media to respect his privacy, a Daily Star story alleged Mr Lucas was on suicide watch and speculated about why the pair had split up, leading him to bring a legal claim for invasion of privacy.
His solicitor John Kelly told the court that the claims made by the newspaper were “wholly without foundation.”
Mr Kelly said: “Publishing these false claims at this time considerably aggravated the hurt and distress caused by the article.”
In an unrelated case Jewish blogger Zoe Margolis accepted sizeable libel damages from the Independent on Sunday.
A headline in the newspaper in March had alleged the author of the Girl With a One Track Mind books was a “hooker”.
