Three appeal court judges today upheld the Daily Mirror's challenge to a High Court ruling in favour of supermodel Ms Naomi Campbell's breach of confidentiality claim.
The newspaper had contested the £3,500 damages award and the decision that it must pay Ms Campbell's legal costs.
The Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, giving the judgment at the Court of Appeal, said the February 2001 report about the model's drug addiction was justified in the public interest.
Ms Campbell claimed that she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated" by the article which included a photograph of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the King's Road, Chelsea.
Lord Phillips, who said the appeal raised the issue of how far the law provides protection against the media publishing details of an individual's private life, described Ms Campbell as an internationally famous fashion model.
He said that she courted, rather than shunned, publicity and had gone out of her way to tell the media that in contrast to other models, she did not take drugs, stimulants or tranquillisers. "This was untrue; she had, in fact, become addicted to drugs," he said.
"On one occasion it became known that Miss Campbell had entered a clinic - the Cottonwood de Tucson, Arizona. The explanation she gave was that she was having therapy aimed at dealing with behaviour and anger problems. The reality is that she was also being treated for drug abuse".
PA