Lily Allen wins damages over fake interview

Lily Allen has accepted damages from the publisher of a football magazine about a fake interview in which she was quoted making offensive remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole.

The High Court in London was told the case stemmed from an article published last year in the French periodical So Foot, which claimed the singer had called Victoria Beckham a "monster" and X Factor judge Cheryl Cole "stupid and superficial".

Allen's solicitor-advocate, Mark Thomson, told Mr Justice Eady that the publisher of So Foot now accepted she had not made the statements attributed to her. He said the defendant, So Press, had agreed to apologise and to pay Allen's damages and legal costs, adding that her "reputation has been vindicated".

The article published in the May 2009 issue of So Foot purported to be an exclusive, first-person interview Allen had given to the magazine. "The interview suggested that the claimant had made various offensive remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole," Mr Thomson said, adding that So Press now accepted that "no interview in fact took place with the claimant".

Allen, 25, who last September received £10,000 in damages and an apology from The Sun, which repeated some of the claims made in the article, received a guarantee that the piece would not be republished.

So Press's solicitor said it offered "sincere apologies to the claimant for the damage, as well as the upset and embarrassment caused to her by the publication of the article".