Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel settled a defamation suit they filed against Heat after the magazine and its parent company Bauer Publishing issued an apology to the couple in a courtroom in Ireland on Tuesday.
The lawsuit stemmed from a story in the September 6-12 issue of Heat that falsely claimed Timberlake and Biel’s marriage was in trouble, and that he had been “flirting” with another woman in a Paris club following a performance there. Under the headline, “Justin Timberlake gets flirty with another woman, It is not his wife!” the magazine further teased, “The flirty photos that rocked Justin and Jessica’s marriage.” Additionally, Heat purported to have had quotes from Biel herself.
None of that was true, and as Gossip Cop had reported at the time, the photos were nothing more than Timberlake hanging out after one of his shows, in plain sight, with a large group that included one of his touring singers.
In court, Bauer acknowledged, “The article was based on an unfounded report regarding Justin Timberlake’s alleged behavior at a club following a performance in Paris, to celebrate a birthday and also included a number of purported statements improperly attributed to Jessica Biel, which now understands had never been made by her.”