The Duchess of York is seeking £25m in damages from News Group Newspapers over the cash-for-access sting by the undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood that destroyed her reputation, it has emerged.
In court documents seen by the Mail on Sunday, Sarah Ferguson claims she was tricked by the former News of the World reporter, who was jailed last month, when she allegedly offered to introduce him to her former husband Prince Andrew for £500,000.
The £25m figure is said to reflect what she has lost in earnings as a result of the sting, according to the report. Ferguson is also seeking an undisclosed sum for her distress and upset.
In defence papers, lawyers for the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing company accuse her of “dishonesty” and attempted fraud and describe her case as “defective and embarrassing”, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Ferguson was secretly filmed in 2010 by Mahmood, who posed as a wealthy Indian businessman looking to invest. The video footage and recording appeared to show her agreeing to set up a meeting between Mahmood and Andrew, and also allegedly accepting £27,600 in advance, telling the reporter: “I can open any door you want.”
The writ was filed in April, seven months after Mahmood was arrested. He was jailed last month for tampering with evidence in the collapsed drugs trial of the singer and X-Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos. A high court judge last week ruled that details of the writ could be made public.
Her lawyers claim Mahmood invaded her privacy and “used deceit” to induce her to make “unguarded statements to her detriment”. The writ states that when the News of the World ran the story, her comments were taken out of context, causing “serious embarrassment, humiliation, distress and reputational damage” and huge financial loss.
News Group Newspapers (NGN) insists the story, headlined “Fergie ‘Sells’ Andy for £500K”, was both true and in the public interest. A 21-page defence document alleges that the duchess was prepared to “enter into a corrupt arrangement” to secure access to Andrew.
It alleges she suggested to Mahmood that “commercial favours could be bought from a member of the royal family” and that Andrew’s then position as trade envoy could be exploited “provided the price was right and the money went to her and not the Duke of York”.
The writ includes details of her earnings, the Mail on Sunday reports. It claims in the year before the scandal, she made £750,000 for speaking engagements and media work. In the year after the article, her earnings dropped to £54,000 and the following year she made nothing at all.
The writ says: “The duchess has lost approximately £510,000 each year of expected income from speaking engagements and articles in the media,” the Mail on Sunday reported.
“The duchess estimates her financial loss to date at £25,060,000. In addition … the duchess suffered serious distress and upset for which she is entitled to compensation,” the newspaper quoted.
News Group Newspapers claims that if the duchess did suffer financial losses, they were caused by “her own illegality” and cites her “attempts to gain pecuniary advantage by deception and to commit fraud”, the Mail on Sunday said.
Following the sting, Ferguson apologised for a “serious lapse of judgment” and told the US talkshow host Oprah Winfrey she had been drinking and was “in the gutter at that moment”.
Buckingham Palace said at the time that the duke categorically denied any knowledge of meetings between his ex-wife and Mahmood.
She and Andrew married in 1986 and separated in 1992, two months after photographs emerged of her having her toes sucked by John Bryan, described as her financial manager. They divorced in 1996. She received a £2m settlement, and earned £2m as a WeightWatchers ambassador until 2007.
At the time of the 2010 exposé, she was reportedly facing financial difficulties.
Mahmood is named as a defendant in the writ, along with NGN, the former News of the World editor Colin Myler, and the former News International legal affairs manager Tom Crone.
Mahmood was jailed for 15 months for conspiring to pervert the course of justice over the collapsed trial of Contostavlos. Following his conviction, it emerged that News UK was facing __more than 45 civil claims that could total as much as £800m from former victims of Mahmood’s stings, including the actor John Alford and former Page 3 girl Emma Morgan.