McCready’s $50M Defamation Suit

Mindy McCready filed a $50 million suit against the parent company of the National Enquirer Aug. 1, claiming the tabloid defamed her in a June 13 article that accused her of being a drug addict and bad mother, citing her own mother as a source.

The country singer is locked in a custody battle for her son, Zander, with her mother, Gayle Inge. McCready accuses American Media of costing her as much as $50 million in lost business opportunities because it published a litany of “negative and false” claims including reports of failed drug tests and not appearing in court over the custody issue.

Included in the article, according to McCready’s complaint, are statements or suggestions published by the Enquirer that she is unable to pass a drug test and is an unfit parent, violent, of “low moral character” and “shameful.”

McCready accuses American Media of exposing her to “distrust, hatred, contempt, ridicule and disgrace” and of causing her to suffer “emotional distress, including but not limited to, loss of reputation, humiliation, powerlessness and frustration.”

McCready had a No. 1 single with “Guys Do It All The Time” in 1996, and attempted a comeback with the release of I’m Still Here in 2010.

In recent years her music career has been overshadowed by her very public personal life including suicide attempts, arrests, appearances on “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” and claiming to have had a sexual relationship with disgraced baseball star Roger Clemens when she was a teenager.