Elton John tells court ‘invasion’ into his family’s privacy was ‘abhorrent’

Sir Elton John has called the alleged “invasion” of his and his son’s medical information by the Daily Mail as “abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency”.

Giving evidence at the High Court on Friday, the singer also described his claim against the newspaper’s publisher as containing “the most horrendous things in the world that you could ever suffer, from a privacy point of view”.

Sir Elton and his husband David Furnish are part of a group of seven high-profile figures, including the Duke of Sussex, actor Elizabeth Hurley and campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, bringing legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

Sir Elton and Furnish allege that 10 articles about them between 2000 and 2015 were based on unlawful information gathering, including unlawfully obtained medical information and landline tapping.

ANL has strongly denied wrongdoing, with lawyers for the publisher previously telling the court that the claims made by Sir Elton and Furnish are “unsupported by any evidence before the court and utterly baseless”.

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Appearing in a green suit, blue shirt and tie via videolink on the 15th day of the trial, Sir Elton told the hearing in London that he and his husband took legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail because they were “outraged”.

Speaking of the 10 articles over which their claim has been made, Catrin Evans KC, for Associated Newspapers Limited, said: “It is true you did not complain at the time that they were published, about any of them.”

Sir Elton replied: “We did not know the extent of the seriousness of what had gone on. When we knew the seriousness of what had gone on, we took action, because we were outraged.”

In a witness statement provided shortly after Sir Elton began giving his oral evidence, the singer said: “There have been many unacceptable features of this claim for David and me.

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“The exploitation of love, connection, trust and bonds to find out information shared in confidence.

“The secrecy and invisibility of such evil acts that we never had a chance of catching or detecting or putting a stop to, which we would have done immediately had we known what was happening.

“The violation of our home and the safety of our children and loved ones.

“But from a personal level, I have found The Mail’s deliberate invasion into my medical health and medical details surrounding the birth of our son Zachary abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency.”

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Sir Elton John also described in his written evidence how it had been “truly sickening” for him and Furnish to see documents in their legal claim against the Daily Mail’s publisher.

During cross-examination, Sir Elton accused Ms Evans of not having anything to argue “about the real meat of this case”.

He asked: “Can I ask you why you're concentrating on these kinds of things, when our case against Associated Newspapers contains the most horrendous things in the world that you could ever suffer, from a privacy point of view, and you're concentrating on my trip to the hospital with an infected glute? Surely you have some more questions to ask me about the real meat of this case, but you don't.”

Ms Evans responded: “Not at this stage.”

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In written submissions, Antony White KC and Ms Evans KC, both for ANL, said the social circles of most of the group of household names bringing the claims were “leaky”.

They continued: “Their friends, and friends of friends or associates, did regularly provide information to the press about the claimants’ private lives, for obvious reasons on a confidential basis.”

The barristers later said that Sir Elton’s spokesperson at the time “regularly provided the media, including Associated journalists, with information about their lives”, including health information.

Sir Elton told the court on Friday that the spokesperson “no longer works for us”.

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The court was previously told that Sir Elton and Furnish felt the safety of their children had been “violated” by alleged unlawful news gathering, including the alleged “stealing” of Zachary’s birth certificate before the couple had received a copy.

In written submissions, ANL’s lawyers said that the article was “entirely legitimately” sourced from previously published reports of the child’s birth, information from the local registrar’s office as well as a statement from a surrogacy agency.

Ms Evans suggested information had been put into the public domain before the Mail article.

In response, Sir Elton described the birth of Zachary as like an “army manoeuvre”, adding: “We kept it quiet, which was a miracle considering who we are.”

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Sir Elton appeared in court a day after Furnish gave evidence.

In his witness statement, the filmmaker said he and Sir Elton “have a long and difficult history with The Mail”.

He continued: “For years, they have been actively homophobic.

“While The Mail have partly moved with the times, they have also published countless judgmental and narrow-minded stories about us – pieces clearly designed to undermine who we are and how we live our lives.

“To know that they were enabled to do this to us through stolen information, and setting private investigators on us, and landline tapping and recording our live telephone calls, is an abomination.”

The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin has been adjourned until Monday and is due to conclude in March, with a judgment in writing expected at a later date.