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Home > News > World News > Article > Loos paid Rs 8 cr for Beckham kiss tell

Loos 'paid Rs 8 cr for Beckham kiss-&-tell'

Updated on: 13 December,2011 07:15 AM IST  | 
Agencies |

News of the World scribe Neville Thurlbeck reveals that they paid the personal assistant a 6-figure sum to disclose details of her affair with David Beckham

Loos 'paid Rs 8 cr for Beckham kiss-&-tell'

News of the World scribe Neville Thurlbeck reveals that they paid the personal assistant a 6-figure sum to disclose details of her affair with David Beckham

Former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck has defended the public interest of publishing stories which alleged that David Beckham had cheated on his wife and F1 boss Max Mosley had taken part in a "Nazi orgy".u00a0Thurlbeck was fired by News International in September after being arrested in April on suspicion of hacking phones while working at the now-defunct Sunday tabloid.




All in public interest?u00a0Neville Thurlbeck said that theyu00a0only pursuedu00a0
Rebecca Loosu00a0because they believed it was in the interest of theu00a0
people to know that Beckham's family image was a sham. Pic/AFP

He told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that he would not comment on phone hacking.u00a0Instead, he was questioned about the justification of publishing so-called "kiss and tell" stories.u00a0'Sham'u00a0In the case of David Beckham's alleged affair with Rebecca Loos, Thurlbeck said there was a "huge public interest" in going to print.

"He was sponsored left, right and centre," he said. "He was always promoting himself with his family as a happy modern man. It was a wholesome image that the family cultivated and the public bought into on a massive scale, and we exposed that as a sham."

He said that although the average payment to the source of a front-page article was " ufffd15,000 (Rs 12.35 lakh)" but, Loos was paid "a six-figure sum".u00a0Thurlbeck said he spent six weeks in Australia and five to six weeks in Spain in order to validate Loos's claims in 2004.

Formula 1 boss Max Mosley won ufffd60,000 (Rs 50 lakh) u00a0in privacy damages over a News of the World story claiming he took part in a 'Nazi orgy'.u00a0Thurlbeck, who wrote the article, said it was the "suggestion of the Nazi theme" which persuaded the newspaper that it was in the public interest to publish it.

Rebecca Loos?
Rebecca Loos was brought to media attention following claims that she conducted an affair with the married football player David Beckham -- while employed as his personal assistant. These allegations made her into a media personality.u00a0


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