Singer wins libel action over ‘wedding proposal’

Charlotte Church has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over a claim that she proposed to boyfriend Jonathan Powell during a boozy pub karaoke night.

The 26-year-old singer and mother-of-two was not at London’s High Court for the settlement of her action against MGN Limited.

Solicitor Mike Brookes told Mr Justice Tugendhat that she brought the claim because the defamatory allegation that she had made a drunken spectacle of herself whilst making a marriage proposal hurt her and caused her distress and embarrassment with her friends and family – and not least Mr Powell.

MGN apologised for the story in the People newspaper in November, which it accepted was completely untrue and should not have been published, and also agreed to pay Ms Church’s reasonable legal fees.