By Michael Holden
LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – British actor Sadie Frost said there had been a “price on my head” and she had become sick with humiliation as she gave evidence in a privacy lawsuit she has brought against the Daily Mail alongside Prince Harry and others.
Frost, 60, is suing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, for privacy violations between 2000 and 2010, including a reporter discovering her ectopic pregnancy in 2003 when she says she had not even told her mother and sisters.
Associated denies allegations of phone hacking and other unlawful acts, made by Frost and the other claimants, including Harry, singer Elton John, and actor Elizabeth Hurley.
STORIES ABOUT JUDE LAW
Frost was the third claimant to give evidence after Harry and Hurley, telling London’s High Court her voicemails were hacked, and her landline and car bugged, mainly to obtain stories about her relationship with ex-husband and fellow actor Jude Law.
“There had been a price put on my head,” said Frost, who starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and has since turned to directing.
She became tearful and requested a break when asked about stories about how her daughter, then aged two, chewed on an ecstasy tablet found on the floor at a children’s party.
“It’s just so humiliating … it made me so ill,” she said, explaining she had needed hospital treatment for post-natal depression.
Frost rejected suggestions from Associated’s lawyer that her family or friends could have leaked the stories, saying they would not have known such highly personal details — or when they did speak to the media it was only after the information had already been published.
“This stuff had been in the press because it had been hacked from my voicemail,” she said, adding both she and Law had at times suspected the other of leaking stories.
ASSOCIATED SAYS LAWSUIT OUT OF DATE
Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, says the information about Frost’s pregnancy came from a freelance journalist with confidential sources close to Frost and her then estranged husband.
The publisher also argues Frost knew enough to bring a claim before filing in October 2022 — arguing she was outside a six‑year limitation period — and that her lawyers used “camouflage” to hide their knowledge.
Frost denied any part in such a “plot”, telling Associated’s lawyer Antony White: “You’re making me feel like I’m part of something that I’m not.”
Asked by her own lawyer about pursuing the case, she said the process was “very distressing”, but added: “The Daily Mail should be accountable.”
On Monday, lawyers released witness statements supporting the claimants from a series of well-known figures including actors Billie Piper and Patsy Kensit who say they believe stories written about them had been unlawfully obtained.
Their evidence is not being challenged as the publisher says their claims are both mistaken and irrelevant.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Additional reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Ros Russell)
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