Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones has told the High Court in London that unauthorised photos of her wedding in Hello!magazine were so "unflattering and sleazy" they made her cry.
Ms Jones and Mr Douglas are claiming £500,000 sterling (€755,000) in damages from the magazine for publishing unauthorised photographs of their wedding in November 2000.
Ms Zeta Jones told the court in written evidence she cried when the "wonderful memories" of her big day at the Plaza Hotel in New York suddenly soured when Hello!magazine published pictures taken by a paparazzo gatecrasher.
Ms Zeta Jones (33) began by giving a brief history of her rise to Hollywood stardom from her humble beginnings as part of a "large and very closely knit family" in Swansea.
She said her movie career took off when she was spotted by Steven Spielberg, who asked her to appear in The Mask of Zorroin 1996, launching her film career in Hollywood.
As her career progressed, her personal life became the subject of "gossip, rumour and speculation".
One of the reasons why she moved to the United States in 1996 was because of her "bad experience" with British tabloids, she said.
"Over the last few years, and particularly since my pregnancy, I have become increasingly concerned about photographs of Michael and me - and more recently of Dylan [their son] - at private moments finding their way into the media".
She said she did not want the world to know she was having a baby before she had told her friends and family and if she was having a disagreement with a loved one, she did not want the world to know.
Ms Zeta-Jones and Mr Douglas must convince the High Court their privacy and confidence were breached at the wedding, where Hello's rival, OK!, had already paid £1 million for exclusive media rights.
The couple had turned down a £1 million-pound-plus offer from Hello!before signing with OK!, which now is separately suing Hello!for £1.75 million for loss of sales.
AFP