Mixed martial artist Conor McGregor along with partner Deirdre Devlin filed breach of privacy claims against Sunday World after the trade posted a photo of his new home and luxury cars. The article containing the photo has already been posted online and the lawsuit could be aiming to take it down.
As reported by Sunday Business Post, McGregor and Devlin filed a lawsuit in the High Court against Sunday World newspaper after a photograph of their house located in K Club in Kildare was posted online.
A report by Sunday World features McGregor's €2million mansion as well as eight luxury cars in the garage and estimated prices for each. The report was made in light of McGregor's 13-second victory fight in Las Vegas and also featured McGregor's background in martial arts, his dedication to his career including an estimate of the amount he takes home after his fights.
According to Irish Times, McGregor's case is interesting as it is an issue between the right to privacy of people but also a case of public interest in having free press especially that his popularity is increasing after his win on getting the Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight title.
In his lawsuit, McGregor asserted that "celebrities have rights too" and the fact that what might be of interest to the public is not the same as what is in the public interest. Moreover, breach of privacy cases are usually accompanied with application for superinjunctions which aims to keep an article from being published.
But in McGregor's case, their aim could be to take down the report as it has already been posted in the internet. Associate professor from Trinity College Dublin Eoin O'Dell also stated that the court looks into whether the reporters were also sought by the public figure to do the report and takes it into consideration when weighing the public interest not to mention, privacy interest of the parties involved.
McGregor and Devlin have not released their statement about the breach of privacy case. More news about the issue will also be reported when the case goes on a hearing.
