I do pa___ul3, yes.
chelle7272, I'm sure those close to the footballer were also gossiping, and it may have been a bigger circle of people than would gossip about your family. The question is whether gossip is acceptable on such a grand scale, i.e. all over the press, and whether one person's privacy is another person's (or newspaper's) pay cheque ...
milly143, you only have to look at Max Mosley and Chris Jefferies to see how untrue stuff can and does get printed. My argument though is, even if this particular story is true (as assumed by the OP and throughout this thread), should it be printed?
This article is very helpful:
http://www.yourprivac...rRightsToPrivacy.html
It covers what's in the public interest. So had the footballer been an MP or a banker, for example, things might be different. But as a footballer, really, he was entitled to his privacy ...