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Knowles Senior sues The Sun

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 27 June 2013

Mathew Knowles, father and former manager of Beyonce of course, is suing The Sun over an interview it published with him back in March which he claims was “personally damaging” and full of “repeated falsehoods”.

Knowles hit out at the article shortly after it was published, saying the tabloid piece, based on an interview he gave the paper, included “fictitious statements” and “blatant lies”, mainly about his relationship with his superstar daughter. In the piece Knowles discussed the difficulties that surrounded the break down of his professional relationship with Beyonce in 2011, with the paper also implying that Knowles Senior was yet to meet his granddaughter Blue Ivy, suggesting continued tensions between father and child.

Knowles demanded a retraction at the time, and has now gone legal, accusing The Sun of defamation and breach of contract, and seeking unspecified damages. In a statement to E! News confirmed the legal action, Knowles said: “My daughters and my family mean the world to me. The barrage of repeated falsehoods spawned by the British Sun’s defamatory article has been exhausting and personally damaging to me”.

He added: “No matter how many papers it sells or web hits it generates, The Sun, like any newspaper, needs to maintain a basic level of journalistic integrity. The Sun crossed the line when it went after my family. The Sun needs to be held responsible for its lies in a court of law. This happens too often to too many people, and it is simply unfair”.

Neither The Sun nor its publisher – which has just changed its name from News International to News UK – have as yet commented on the litigation.