A gossip magazine was ordered to pay French actress Julie Gayet 15,000 euros, or $21,000, for printing photographs of her and French President Francois Hollande as proof they were having an affair, The Guardian reported.
Gayet, 41, filed a lawsuit against the magazine Closer seeking 50,000 euros in damages for invading her privacy by publishing a 7-page photo spread on Jan. 10. The pictures show a man said to be Hollande, 59, on a scooter leaving her Paris apartment.
A French court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre ordered Closer to pay the damages, adding that the magazine must publish the ruling on its front page, The Guardian reported.
Neither Hollande nor Gayet have denied their supposed affair. The scandal that resulted from the pictures captured international headlines, resulting in Gayet keeping a low profile and Hollande announcing his split from his partner of almost a decade, Valerie Trierweiler, 49.
"My private life is my private life," Gayet, who starred in over 70 films, said during an appearance in New York this month, according to The Guardian.
Jean Ennochi, Gayet's lawyer, said the actress was "hunted" by the press, the newspaper reported.
"She was assaulted by swarms of photographers....it was like the hunt of a wild animal," Ennochi told the court.
Defense lawyers for Closer said the magazine had a right to publish the photographs because they were public interest. The photographs raised questions about Hollande's "duty of transparency," said defense lawyer Delphine Pando, according to The Guardian.
Gayet filed two criminal complaints in addition to her lawsuit. One complaint is against Closer for publishing another set of photos of her inside a car, The Guardian reported. According French law, the magazine violated her private space. The other complaint claims the paparazzi were "endangering others" by following her so closely.
