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National Enquirer Settles Kennedy Lawsuit

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Aug 13, 2008 8:57 pm US/Eastern

National Enquirer Settles Kennedy Lawsuit

BOSTON (AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Kennedy speaks at George Washington University in 2004.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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The National Enquirer has settled a lawsuit filed by a Massachusetts woman who accused the tabloid of fabricating stories that said her son born in 1984 was fathered by Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Terms of the settlement with Caroline Bilodeau-Allen of Sandwich, Mass., were not disclosed in a court dismissal order filed Aug. 1.

Bilodeau-Allen filed a defamation lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boston last November, claiming two articles that appeared in the Enquirer in early 2006 contained "false and sensationalized reporting and outright fabrications."

Attorneys for Bilodeau-Allen and her son Christopher Bilodeau, as well as those for The National Enquirer and its parent company, America Media Inc., did not immediately return messages left after business hours Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Kennedy, D-Mass., did not immediately return a call for comment.

The National Enquirer previously said it had no reason to doubt the source of the information and that the plaintiffs declined several opportunities to deny the initial story prior to publication.

The settlement was first reported Monday by the Web site TheSmokingGun.com, and on Wednesday by The Boston Globe.

TheSmokingGun.com said the Enquirer agreed to make a "significant payment" to Bilodeau-Allen after her lawyers provided 1985 DNA test results showing that Kennedy was not the father of Christopher Bilodeau.