Zeta wanted money, not privacy, says owner of 'Hello!'

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones touted their wedding to the world's celebrity magazines to make the most money, the Spanish owner of Hello! said yesterday.

Eduardo Sanchez Junco told the High Court that the Hollywood couple's £1m exclusive deal with his rival, OK! magazine, was to make money, not to protect their privacy.

The Douglases are seeking £500,000 damages from Hello! and OK! wants £1.75m after Hello! published pictures of the wedding before the approved photographs appearing in OK! The wedding was attended by 320 guests including the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, and the film stars Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan.

On Tuesday, Ms Zeta Jones, 33, who was born in Swansea, told Mr Justice Lindsay she felt "violated" when pictures taken by a gatecrasher appeared in Hello! It was an "appalling" invasion of their privacy, the actress said.

But yesterday, Mr Sanchez, speaking through an interpreter, responded that Hello! had been used by the couple's publicist, Allen Burry, to raise the price for coverage of the wedding at the New York Plaza Hotel in November 2000.

"The wedding was offered to various media, including ourselves, solely in order to establish competition, which would raise the price for exclusivity," he said.

Mr Sanchez, whose company has published the original Spanish version of Hello! – Hola! – for more than 50 years, added: "Celebrities choose to reach agreements with Hello! magazine for exclusive coverage of their weddings for a number of different reasons. This includes a desire to have the expenses of their weddings paid for, and often provides them with the opportunity to make a profit as well as allowing them controlled publicity.

"For some, the opportunity of protecting their image is closely linked to their aim of securing good publicity. However, for those who wish to protect their privacy, a feature in a magazine does not achieve that."

He said he had known many celebrities who did not want their wedding publicised, naming Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, and Madonna and Guy Ritchie, who chose not to reach agreements with magazines. "The result was much less media interest in their weddings than that attracted by the claimants," he said.

Mr Sanchez, whose magazine lost an intense bidding war to OK! for exclusive access to the wedding, also argued that his magazine's coverage of the two stars had always been fair and balanced and not "spiteful" as they had claimed in court.

He said he knew the paparazzi photographs would spoil OK!'s exclusive coverage of the wedding but denied wanting to cause the couple distress.

Mr Sanchez said the snatched pictures were not good quality but were "in no way offensive". He also denied that his magazine had offered more than OK! for the exclusive rights. Questioned by Michael Tugendhat QC, for OK! and the Douglases, Mr Sanchez said that not securing the exclusive was not a "disaster ... but it was bad news".