Pubdate: Tue, 12 Feb 2002
Source: Times, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd
Contact:  http://www.the-times.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/454
Author: Tim Reid

CAMPBELL BARES SOUL IN COURT

THE model Naomi Campbell told the High Court yesterday of her long battle 
against drug addiction, as she launched a potentially groundbreaking case 
against The Mirror over claims that the newspaper invaded her privacy last 
year.

Miss Campbell, 31, sneaked into court by a side door in an attempt to avoid 
photographers, but once inside she was open and frank, agreeing that she 
had had a problem with hard drugs and that she had a reputation for 
tantrums. But she said that she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and 
violated" by photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and 
an accompanying story in The Mirror last February.

Dressed in a grey trouser suit, Miss Campbell said that she had realised in 
1997 that she had a drugs problem, but the article had left her feeling 
anxious, depressed, and"for the first time in a long while I doubted my 
resolve to go on."

Miss Campbell, who is suing the newspaper for breach of confidence, in 
addition to invasion of privacy under new European human rights 
legislation, also complained about another Mirror article, which said that 
she was "about as effective as a chocolate soldier" as a campaigner. "I 
took it as a racist slur,"   she said.

Desmond Browne, QC, for MGN Ltd, said that Miss Campbell had forfeited any 
right to privacy about her drug-taking because it was an illegal activity.
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