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He said that he had also explained to the team of editors that he and Ms Marsden “became friends . . . and that we would be meeting about that” and so there was now a conflict of interest.

Ms Marsden replied that this approach “usually, actually works much better than the alternative”, to which he apparently replied: “The truth is of course a much worse conflict of interest than that; but that will do.”

History will decide whether Mr Wales broke his own principles, although before that happens there may well be a Wikipedia page devoted to the controversy.

High-tech splits

E-mail
Trevor Luxton, a financier, e-mailed friends boasting of how he had received oral sex from his ex-girlfriend while speaking to his fiancée on the phone. The e-mail flashed around the world, to be read by thousands.

The American writer Robert Olen Butler sent an e-mail to five students about his split from his wife, which was equally widely circulated

Fax
Phil Collins asked his wife for a divorce by fax

Television
Eddie Murphy announced his split from the Spice Girl Mel B on television, further insisting that the baby she was carrying might not be his.

Matt Damon announced – to the world and to his girlfriend Minnie Driver – that he was single on the Oprah Show

Radio
The comedian Johnny Vegas announced his split with his girlfriend on Kiss FM, saying: “If she’s listening, which would be amazing, it’s not that anything went wrong, it’s just that you stopped trying.”

Magazine advertisement
The soul singer James Brown ended his marriage by taking out a full-page advertisement in Variety

Press statement
The late Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, announced his intentions to leave his wife and marry another woman via a press statement made at Heathrow

— Source: Times Database

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