Law’s hounding by the press
Jude Law knows just how intrusive Britain’s tabloid media can be.
Jude Law knows just how intrusive Britain’s tabloid media can be, said Sarah Lyall in The New York Times. For much of the 2000s, the actor was endlessly stalked by paparazzi, as reporters documented his troubled relationship with actress Sienna Miller and the affair he had with his children’s nanny. The tabloids seemed to know his every move in advance, leaving him paranoid and distrustful of friends and family. “You suddenly start to go, ‘Wait a minute. How do they know this? Where are they piecing this together from?’” he says. But he began to grudgingly accept it. “This is what my life has become,” he recalls thinking. “This is my lot and I’ve got to deal with it.” But in 2010, Law discovered that he was one of many celebrities whose phones had been hacked by private investigators working for tabloid journalists. The ensuing furor over media ethics was strangely comforting, he says. “To have other people go, ‘This is outrageous,’ meant that I didn’t feel like this sort of mad, paranoid, dystopian lunatic saying, ‘The world’s following me—what’s going on?’” Today, the tabloids largely leave him in peace—but not out of respect, he insists. “There was nothing left to write,” he says. “There is only so much laundry one has, in the end, to be washed in public.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How did the Wagner Group recruit young British men for arson attack?
Today's Big Question Russian operatives have been using encrypted messaging apps to groom saboteurs across Europe
-
The best graphic novels
The Week Recommends These inventive illustrated books will transport you to another world
-
How a UK wealth tax could work
A levy could be on the agenda as Rachel Reeves attempts to get the nation's finances back on track