Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has lost his privacy case in the High Court against The Mirror regarding a story they printed about an alleged affair.
The England international was seeking damages from MGN Ltd after a story appeared in a Sunday edition of the newspaper last April, claiming that the married father-of-three was having an affair.
MGN argued that the story was legal based on the grounds that it was in the public interest and the Court has agreed.
"Overall, in my judgement, the balancing exercise favours the defendant's right of freedom of expression over the claimant's right of privacy,” the BBC quotes the judge as saying.
The defender reportedly said at the time that he had not seen the woman he allegedly had an affair with in six years.
