'Daily Mail' writer regretful at 'any affront' from Gately article

DAILY MAIL journalist Jan Moir has has expressed regret about “any affront caused” by her recent article on Boyzone star Stephen Gately.

“This was never my intention,” said Moir.

The British Press Complaints Commission received a record 21,000 complaints about an opinion column she wrote after his death in Majorca.

Writing last Friday, she said that to be the focus of such depth of feeling had been an interesting experience, but she did not complain. “After all, I am not – unlike those close to Stephen Gately – mourning for the loss of a much-loved partner, son, family member and close friend,” she added.

“To them, I would like to say sorry if I have caused distress by the insensitive timing of the column, published so close to the funeral.”

Following his death, Moir wrote an article headlined “A strange, lonely and troubling death”. She added that “if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy”.

Last Friday, she said the point of her first article was to suggest that, in her honest opinion, Gately’s death raised many unanswered questions.

She said it struck her as bizarre that it had been said that he had died of “natural causes”, even before toxicology results had been released.

“Absolutely none of this had anything to do with his sexuality,” Moir added. “If he had been a heterosexual member of a boy band, I would have written exactly the same article.”

She said that anybody who knew her would vouch that “I have never held such poisonous views”.