‘Gross witch hunt': Brittany Groth breaks silence to rip into intrusive tabloid reports
In an emotive statement, Brittany Groth said the inference that their relationship began when she was under 18 and he was her tennis coach was baseless and false and that a tabloid hit-job on her husband had 'spiralled into a gross witch hunt'.
The Groths have launched legal action against the paper, both for defamation and serious invasion of privacy, after it published stories questioning whether their relationship began on an improper, and potentially criminal, basis.
Lawyers for the couple have also initiated defamation proceedings against Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas for comments she made in response to a question about the Groths at a press conference on Tuesday.
'I never imagined that I, a happily married woman in my thirties with children, would be forced to defend myself or my family against outrageous insinuations and a public dissection of my private life by a newspaper,' Brittany Groth said in a statement on Thursday.
'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.'
'The Herald Sun never once attempted to contact me. Their 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 Groths have previously said they met at Brittany Groth's suburban tennis club in 2011 when Brittany was 16 or 17 and Sam Groth, a professional player, had taken a break from the touring circuit and was working as a coach.
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