Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel have agreed to a lawsuit settlement with Heat magazine after the Irish tabloid apologized and retracted cheating accusations against the singer-actor.
MSN News reported that following a brief hearing on the defamation suits lodged by Timberlake and Biel last week against Heat in Dublin, Ireland, the couple's lawyers disclosed that a settlement has been reached. Details of the financial settlement were not disclosed though.
Bauer Media Group, the German publisher of Heat magazine also issued a public apology and retracted the story, reports BBC News.
The defamation suits by the celebrity couple emanated from a "false and unfounded story" published by Heat magazine questioning their two-year marriage. The story was also accompanied by quotes wrongly attributed to Biel, notes BBC News.
Heat published on its September 6 - 12 issue pictures of Justin Timberlake in a Paris nightclub claiming that the singer-actor was being unfaithful to his wife, right on his birthday party celebration.
MSN News cited that the magazine even headline the story: "Justin Timberlake gets flirty with another woman! It's not his wife!" It also captioned the photos: "The flirty photos that rocked Justin and Jessica's marriage."
Paul Tweed of Johnsons Solicitors, who represented the Timberlakes in the Dublin High Court, subsequently issued a statement after the hearing.
"Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are very satisfied with this categoric retraction of what was a false and unfounded story, together with the comprehensive apology from Bauer Consumer Media, the publishers of Heat magazine," Tweed read from the statement.
Tweed also added that the couple will not be making any further comment in relation to the matter. "But they will not hesitate to take similar legal action if false allegations regarding the state of their marriage are repeated," the statement said.
For its part, Bauer Media Group released its official public apology to the couple which confirmed that the published article in Heat magazine was derived from an unfounded report about Timberlake's alleged "moment of infidelity" in Paris, notes ET Online.
ET Online also detailed how the Heat publisher acknowledged the purported statements improperly attributed to Jessica Biel, which Bauer also confirmed not to have come from the actress.
"The Defendant accepts that the article was false and withdraws any inferences that questioned the state of Justin and Jessica's marriage. The Defendant regrets any embarrassment caused to the couple and reservedly apologizes to them," the Bauer Media Group public apology reads.
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