Holly Valance has the Day in court

FORMER TV star Holly Valance has failed to stop Woman's Day publishing paparazzi photos that reveal her pregnancy.

FORMER TV star and singer Holly Valance has lost a bid to stop top-selling weekly Woman's Day publishing paparazzi photos that reveal her pregnancy, although the judge criticised the magazine for its "disdainful" conduct.

Candy, who married billionaire Nick Candy in October and according to court papers is five months pregnant, applied on Saturday to the NSW Supreme Court for an injunction restraining publisher Bauer Media from using pictures that were taken of her on a yacht off the Italian coast.

According to the judgment, the license to the photos was sold by Snapper Media to Bauer's Woman's Day last Tuesday.

On Thursday, however, after hearing from Candy's London lawyers, the photo agency withdrew its permission for Bauer to publish them.

Nevertheless, Woman's Day went ahead.

The publisher argued in court that the magazine had already gone to print, with 27,870 copies mailed out to subscribers on Friday, and it was not possible to have the photos removed at that late stage.

In his ruling, Justice Michael Pembroke said he was "abundantly satisfied" that Candy "may in due course be entitled to recover substantial damages for breach of confidence''.

However, he believed it was "now too late to issue the injunction''.

"If the objective of the plaintiff is to protect her own opportunity to reveal the fact of her pregnancy at a time of her choosing, then that opportunity has been lost by the events which have occurred,'' the judge said.

"There is no point in restraining the defendant from further distributing copies that remain as part of the print run for this issue.

"I make it quite clear that the conduct of the defendant is disdainful.

"It clearly puts a premium on its own commercial advantage ahead of the privacy of the plaintiff.''

Woman's Day is Australia's biggest selling weekly magazine with an average circulation of about 348,000 copies.

Comment is being sought from Bauer and Woman's Day editor Fiona Connolly.