Parkinson accepts £25k libel damages

Sir Michael Parkinson has accepted £25,000 in libel damages from the Daily Mail over an article which accused him of lying about his family upbringing.

The piece, published in May last year under the title 'Who's Telling Parkies?', made a number of allegations in response to the way Parkinson had described his background in his 2008 autobiography.

The Daily Mail article claimed that the former chatshow host had lied about having a harmonious family history and had behaved in a "grossly insensitive" way towards his elderly uncle Bernard Parkinson.

However, the newspaper has now accepted that the allegations were "entirely false".

In a statement, Parkinson explained: "As a journalist myself, I have been reluctant to take legal action against any newspaper. Where defamatory allegations have been published about me, I have always, until now, turned a blind eye."

The TV star, who was at London's High Court for the settlement today, added that he believed the Daily Mail had "crossed a line" in its reporting.

Parkinson confirmed that he will donate the full £25,000 payout to charity, splitting the sum between the Alexander Devine Children's Cancer Trust and a school for orphans in South Africa.