Sam Groth's wife Brittany publicly defends couple's relationship as they threaten legal action against minister
On Wednesday, the couple's legal firm sent a defamations concerns notice to the Herald Sun, alleging two articles and social media posts by the publication were both a serious invasion of Brittany's privacy and harmful to Sam's reputation.
The articles – which were condemned by the premier, Jacinta Allan, and the opposition leader, Brad Battin – claimed unnamed Liberal colleagues raised concerns over when the couple's relationship began, as they feared the issue could be weaponised by their political opponents.
But in a statement distributed by the pair's legal team on Thursday, Brittany said the timeline suggested by the Herald Sun report was 'baseless and false'.
She said she was in a 'relationship with someone else' when she first met Sam in September 2011, that he was not her tennis coach and he resumed his professional tennis career a month later, in mid-November 2011.
'We did not engage in any conduct that would even arguably fall within the provisions quoted by the Herald Sun,' Brittany said.
She said never imagined she would be 'forced to defend myself or my family against outrageous insinuations and a public dissection of my private life by a newspaper'.
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'The Herald Sun's decision to speculate salaciously about my personal life from 14 years ago, when I was a teenager, is not journalism. It is a disgraceful smear campaign, devoid of fact, public interest or even basic decency,' Brittany said.
She alleged the Herald Sun 'never once' attempted to contact her, deliberately published 'clickable' photos and allowed the publication on their platforms of 'hundreds of vile and defamatory comments' by members of the public about her family.
'You have now hidden them, but only after the damage was already done,' Brittany said.
She alleged the publication's conduct 'has amounted to pressure on me to disclose intimate details of my personal and private life, including when I first had sex with my husband, to defend myself against fiction.'
The legal letter to the Herald Sun demanded all the articles and posts be removed permanently by 5pm on Wednesday and the paper publish an apology.
But the Herald Sun refused and published another report, claiming the Groths were attempting to 'shut down discussion' on a matter of public interest.
Editor Sam Weir was quoted in the Herald Sun: 'We stand by our reporting on a matter of public interest, covering important issues which could have a major impact on Victorian politics in the lead-up to an election.'
Brittany, however, disputed that her 'teenage private life' was in the public interest.
'There is no excuse for using the democratic process as a shield for harassment. There is no justification for attacking a woman's integrity, let alone her children, in the pursuit of gossip,' she said.
'I am the only person who owns my story. And I will not sit back while my family is dehumanised for headlines.'
The couple's lawyers have also written to the health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, asking her to publicly apologise for comments she made outside parliament on Tuesday about when the pair's relationship had begun.
The letter accuses her of making comments that were both defamatory and 'highly inappropriate'.
'They appear to have been made by you without any personal knowledge or understanding of the background facts about Mr and Mrs Groth's relationship, without you having taken any steps to approach Mr Groth or his wife to discuss the situation with them,' the letter from Patrick George claimed.
Thomas has been contacted for comment.
The premier told reporters Thomas was 'asked a more general question' and noted the reporting was the result of 'deep division within the Victorian Liberal party'.
'I reiterate my view that families should very much be off limits,' Allan said.
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