Celebrity doctor Christian Jessen has said he is facing bankruptcy over a libel bill which could exceed £425,000 after tweeting false allegations that Arlene Foster was having an extra-marital affair.
The TV host is asking his followers to help him raise money to cover his legal costs after Northern Ireland‘s First Minister took him to court for tweeting the false allegations.
The 44-year-old was ordered to pay the outgoing First Minister £125,000 in damages by Mr Justice McAlinden in a ruling last week.
Dr Jessen who appears on Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, said he only has £20,000 to his name and cannot pay for an appeal without crowd-funding.
The law regarding libel is pretty clear. He must have known that what he was tweeting was false. Certainly as soon as the victim drew it to his attention, he should have withdrawn it and made the relevant apology, but his arrogance got the better of him.
The judge also addressed the fact that Dr Jessen failed to respond to warnings from Mrs Foster’s lawyer – which became the subject of mainstream media coverage.
As David Cameron once said, too many tweets make a twat.
‘Obviously, I deeply regret it, and if Arlene Foster says the claim in the tweet isn’t true, then I’m sorry for causing her any hurt,’ he said.
‘But I don’t agree with the judgment. I’d been brutally honest about my mental health in court and the circumstances that led to the tweet, and for that to be dismissed is really concerning.
‘I couldn’t get together all my medical evidence of my depression. I have spent the last year living with my parents and not working due to the Covid pandemic and not having been in a fit mental state. It was just a stupid tweet.’
I’ve suffered depression since losing my wife to cancer, but I haven’t gone around libelling people. Depression isn’t some sort of excuse for trying to ruin people’s lives with outright lies.
I’ve hardly worked this past year as a consequence of the Covid nonsense, but I haven’t gone around libelling people.
The judgement was perfectly sound and his excuses didn’t wash. And, no, it wasn’t a stupid tweet – it was libel and libel carries consequences.
Ah, found it.
Ah, at last! Stupidity does have consequences.
I think this went beyond stupidity into realms of malice. With luck he’ll have to take out a second mortgage.
How will he do that if he’s bankrupt?
Did you borrow that from Julia Thylacosmilus?
Jessen had a wife? Eh? Were they married? Was he also a wife?
What has he done with all his dosh?
Given that Julia’s must be getting worn out by now, I had to hunt one down of my own.
According to Guido Fawkes, he seems to own two properties valued at up to £2m – but why flog one of those when you can scam the dosh from the gullibles?