Businesswoman Jackie Lavin launches defamation proceedings against newspaper

Ms Lavin claims the article, which was published in the Sunday Times in November 2021, about the sale of the 43-room, three-storey Osberstown House in Kildare was 'manifestly incorrect'

Jackie Lavin claims article wrongly states she was forced to sell her property at Osberstown House in Co Kildare by a bank. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Businesswoman Jackie Lavin has launched defamation proceedings against the publisher of the Sunday Times newspaper over an article she says wrongly stated she was forced to sell her former Co Kildare home.

In her action, Ms Lavin claims the article, which was published in Ireland in early November 2021, about the sale of the 43-room, three-storey period property at Osberstown House in Co Kildare was "manifestly incorrect".

Ms Lavin, who shared the house with her long-time partner, businessman and star of the Irish television version of The Apprentice Bill Cullen, claims article wrongly states she was forced to sell that property by a bank.

She claims she had settled the debts referred to in the article in full, and at the time of publication, she did not owe that financial entity anything whatsoever.

Arising out of the article, she wants to sue the newspaper's publishers, the London-based Times Newspapers Limited, for defamation before the High Court in Dublin.

In her action, she seeks damages, including aggravated damages, for alleged defamation, malicious falsehood and damage to her good name and character.

She also seeks an injunction restraining the defendant from any further publication of the allegedly defamatory material concerning her, and an order directing the newspaper to publish a correction of the allegedly defamatory statement in a manner agreed between the parties.

The matter was briefly mentioned before Mr Justice Brian O'Moore on Tuesday.

The judge allowed Ms Lavin, represented in court by Deirdre Miller Bl, to serve formal notice of the defamation proceedings on the defendant.

Formal permission to serve the proceedings is required from the court because the defendant is based outside of the jurisdiction.