Letter: Ashby's expensive libel action

Sir: Surely, it is the press and its voyeuristic patrons who have ruined David Ashby, not his lack of openness ("Ruined by a lie, not by a lifestyle", 21 December). The charge of hypocrisy levelled against Mr Ashby seems presumptuous: it may be that he supports family values all the more for his own bitter experience of a broken home.

Yours faithfully,

Lucy Haire

Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire

20 December