Donovan v The Face (1992) Unreported

Facts

• Jason Donovan, an Australian-born singer and actor who had attained substantial commercial success in the United Kingdom, publicly presented himself as heterosexual.
• In 1992 The Face, a style and culture magazine, published an article that insinuated Donovan was homosexual and that his carefully cultivated heterosexual image had been contrived solely for commercial advantage.
• The article therefore suggested two distinct matters: (i) Donovan’s true sexual orientation differed from the persona he had projected, and (ii) he had deliberately misled the public and the entertainment industry about that fact for pecuniary gain.
• Donovan issued libel proceedings in the High Court, pleading that the publication damaged his personal and professional reputation by portraying him as dishonest, hypocritical, and manipulative toward his fan-base.
• Because the action was resolved at first-instance level and was never reported in the official Law Reports, no authorised transcript is publicly available; the case is known only through contemporary media coverage and subsequent academic commentary.

Issues

1. Whether the allegation that Donovan was homosexual, contrary to his public image, was capable of lowering him in the estimation of right-thinking members of society in 1992.
2. Whether, even if being described as homosexual was not itself defamatory, the accompanying imputation that he had knowingly lied to the public about such a personal matter constituted a defamatory sting.
3. How the court should separate the potentially defamatory element (deceit) from the element that, standing alone, might be non-defamatory (sexual orientation).

Decision

• The High Court held that the article was defamatory and entered judgment for Donovan.
• The key element that rendered the article actionable was not the assertion of homosexuality per se. Rather, it was the suggestion that Donovan had cynically constructed a false image to exploit his predominantly teenage, female audience and thereby secure commercial success.
• By depicting Donovan as a deliberate liar who had orchestrated a fraudulent public persona, the magazine attacked the core attributes of honesty and authenticity that entertainers rely on to maintain public trust.
• The court accepted that a charge of hypocrisy and deceit, especially in the domain of personal identity, was capable of causing serious reputational harm; it therefore satisfied the common-law test that the words complained of “tend to lower the claimant in the estimation of right-thinking members of society”.
• Damages were awarded, reflecting compensation for injury to reputation and the vindication of Donovan’s character. (The precise quantum is not stated in the available material.)

Legal Principles

• At common law, a statement is defamatory if, in its natural and ordinary meaning, it would cause a reasonable person to think less of the claimant or shun or avoid him.
• Describing someone as homosexual is not, in and of itself, defamatory; societal attitudes have evolved such that homosexuality is not generally regarded as discreditable. However, the position in 1992 required the court to consider both prevailing social views and the claimant’s pleaded meaning.
• Even where the primary allegation (e.g., sexual orientation) is neutral or benign, a publication becomes actionable if it carries an additional imputation that the claimant behaved dishonestly or unethically—here, by concealing the truth for financial gain.
• The law of libel protects a person’s reputation from false attacks on integrity. Dishonesty allegations, whether pertaining to business dealings or personal representation, traditionally attract a substantial award because they strike at a person’s moral character.
• The defamatory meaning of a publication is assessed from the standpoint of the hypothetical ordinary reader, taking into account the overall context, tone, and any implications that a reasonable reader would draw.
• Where multiple meanings are pleaded, the court determines which meanings are capable of being defamatory and whether the evidence supports the claimant’s preferred construction.

Conclusion

The High Court concluded that The Face committed libel by publishing an article that conveyed to the ordinary reader not merely that Jason Donovan was gay, but that he had deliberately misrepresented his sexual orientation for commercial advantage. The reputational harm flowed from the charge of deceit and hypocrisy, core attributes that can undermine public confidence in a performer. Consequently, Donovan was entitled to damages for the unjustified injury to his character, illustrating that libel law focuses on the sting of dishonesty rather than on neutral personal characteristics.