Singh: was waiting for call all day
It was 2.30am on Sunday and News of the World columnist Rav Singh was in bed when he received the phone call he had been waiting for all day.
A contact shouted down the line|, “she’s getting married; she’s getting married”. And Singh knew he had bagged the scoop on pop diva J-Lo’s secret third marriage.
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The News of the World’s late 3am deadline saw the story get into 30,000 copies.
Singh had told contacts that he did not care what time it was, he wanted to know when she got married. One of them took him at his word. Singh immediately called his newsdesk.
“You’ve got 20 minutes,” the desk told him. Singh next called his editor Andy Coulson at home, who gave the go-ahead, and then his contact to doublecheck all the details.
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J-Lo and new husband Marc Anthony had kept their wedding plans so under cover they invited guests to a barbecue without telling them they were there to witness the marriage.
“Are you sure it is J-Lo?” demanded Singh. “I took pictures and I have just seen her bum,” was the reply. The actress/singer is noted for her bootylicious rear.
The newspaper couldn’t go as big on the story as it would have wished. But it got a taster on the front and the story on page 4 and Singh was “over the moon” to have broken it ahead of the rest of the press, which got the pictures next day.
“I love working for the News of the World because it goes so late and you can get breaking stories in,” said Singh.
By Jean Morgan
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