Eva Longoria and Tony Parker have received an apology from a paparazzi agency, which claimed the NBA star had an affair with a woman he met at his wedding to the “Desperate Housewives” star.
In December, X17Online ran several stories alleging Parker had a two-month affair with a French model named Alexandra Paressant.
Paressant reportedly told X17Online she first met Parker at his wedding to Longoria, where Paressant was introduced to Parker by his friend and fellow French pro athlete Thierry Henry.
In response to the stories, Parker filed a lawsuit against the photo agency seeking at least $40 million in damages for posting the “false and defamatory” articles.
On April 4, X17Online posted the following message on its Web site:
“In December 2007, X17online.com published over ten articles concerning Tony Parker and a woman named Alexandra Paressant. Various of the articles asserted that, after Mr. Parker was introduced to Ms. Paressant by Thierry Henry at [his] wedding to Eva Longoria, Mr. Parker engaged in sexual relations with Ms. Paressant. Since the publication of these articles, X17online.com and X17, Inc. have discovered that Mr. Parker has never met with, or spoken to Ms. Paressant nor has he ever had sexual relations with her. X17online.com and X7 [sic], Inc. regret having been misled by Ms. Paressant and her representatives and apologize to Mr. Parker for any damage or inconvenience this may have caused him or his wife.”
In his lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in December, Parker said the alleged encounter “never happened.”
“X17 had to know that the story was false, or, at the very least, it had to have entertained serious doubts about the credibility of its supposed source,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit also claimed that X17 never contacted Henry, Parker, Longoria or their representatives before running the stories, and refused to retract them after being told the claims were false.
“No one from X17 attempted to contact Mr. Henry, who … would have told them in no uncertain terms that this woman was not at the wedding,” the lawsuit said, adding that Parker had never met anyone named Alexandra Paressant.
When the rumors of infidelity were reported, Eva quickly came to the defense of her husband.
“Tony has been nothing short of the perfect husband,” Eva said in a statement to People.
Parker also issued a statement, reaffirming his love and commitment to his wife.
“I love my wife,” Parker said. “She’s the best thing in my life, and I have never been happier.”
Tony and Eva were married in July 2007.
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