IPSO has upheld a complaint made by Lily James against MailOnline.
The 33-year-old actress argued that the outlet had been harassing her by sending freelance journalists to surround her house after she asked them to go away.
The Mamma Mia 2 star told the regulator that the persistent and intrusive approaches from the press caused her to move home.
In a four-month period, MailOnline published 51 articles about Lily between October 12, 2020 and February 2, 2021.
IPSO said while the articles themselves were not harassment, the constant presence of journalists outside her home was.
Out of the 51 articles, 18 articles were published in a single week between October 12 – 19, seven of those being on October 13 alone.
IPSO said those articles in question were about Lily being abroad with a married actor.
In October 2020, the actress hit headlines all over the world when she was papped looking very close to Dominic West in Rome.
Lily also insisted the outlet did not respect her privacy when they snapped photos of her while she dined at a restaurant in London the following month.
The 33-year-old told IPSO that the publication created “a market for photographs of her”, and as a result “a photographer had pursued her while she was in a removal van, in an attempt to discern the location of her new home”.
The complaint also stated: “At the height of the coverage, she had been unable to return to her home due to the presence of photographers and, as a result, was forced to move address.”
The Mail argued against IPSO’s findings and insisted that there was a public interest in the photos and that Lily was breaking Covid-19 restrictions.
However, IPSO rejected their argument and said that Lily was attending a business meeting.
The regulator ordered that a link to the full adjudication be linked on the top half of Mail Online’s homepage “for at least 24 hours, and should then be archived in the usual way”.
