Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, who has just had her third child, is threatening to sue rights group Fathers4Justice after they launched an advertising campaign negatively targeting the actress.
The group had prepared to launch an advertising campaign which featured a photo of Kate with the tagline: “Kate, every child deserves their father this Christmas.”
The bizarre ad came in response to comments Kate made in an interview with Vogue magazine, where the 38-year-old said her children had a stable home life living with her rather than being passed “from pillar to post”.
In the interview, Kate says her two children Mia, 13, and Joe, 9, by ex-husbands Sam Mendes and Jim Threapleton, are not victims of her divorces and have good relationships with their fathers.
“People go, ‘Oh, my God! Those poor children! They must have gone through so much.’ Says who?” She said.
“They’ve always been with me. They don’t go from pillar to post; they’re not flown here and there with nannies. That’s never happened.
“My kids don’t go back and forth; none of this 50/50 time with the mums and dads – my children live with me; that is it. That is it!”
While Fathers4Justice says Kate’s private life did not form the basis of their campaign, they have used her situation and image to further their campaign for fathers’ access to their children after separation or divorce.
Kate’s solicitors have issued the group with a legal letter claiming that the campaign is “misleading and seriously defamatory”.
Sam Mendes, Kate’s former husband, has also written to Fathers4Justice saying in a statement: “It is inappropriate for this organisation to involve my family and I when they know nothing of our personal circumstances.”
“Whilst I fully support fathers’ rights, I can happily state this has never been a concern for me or my son.”
Fathers4Justice campaign director Nadine O’Connor said the organisation was simply re-stating comments about Kate’s children/parenting arrangements which she brought into the public domain herself.
“We believe the content of the advert is accurate, balanced and reflective of the comments she made,” she said.
“We do though welcome Mr Mendes’ comments supporting fathers’ rights and find it regrettable that instead of resolving this dispute as we had agreed, Kate Winslet has sought redress through legal action.
“I would like to re-iterate that Fathers4Justice has not made any comment in our advert about the personal arrangements of Ms Winslet and the fathers of her children,” she said.
“What we have referred to in the advert is a direct quote from Ms Winslet herself, a statement she put in the public domain through a lengthy self-promotional interview in October’s Vogue magazine,” she said.
“Ms Winslet’s comments on shared parenting were then quoted worldwide by numerous newspapers, who also took issue with them.
“Of course if Ms Winslet is now saying, through her legal team who are threatening Fathers4Justice, that the Vogue article is inaccurate and that Vogue misquoted her, then that is something she needs to take up with them and not us.”
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