What David Haye will need to prove to win £10 million lawsuit against ITV

David Haye is reportedly suing ITV for as much as £10 million over claims that the editing for I'm A Celebrity... South Africa damaged his brand.

That's according to The Sun, who reported that Haye might lose his appearance fee for I'm A Celeb over an alleged breach of contract due to the way he behaved during the live finale.

There were plenty of arguments, some of the celebrities walked off while the cameras were still rolling, and Haye has said that he and Jimmy Bullard were 'kicked out' of the finale.

“David is absolutely gung-ho about all of this - he is incandescent with rage about how the whole series has been handled and feels he’s being made a scapegoat by ITV,” a source told The Sun.

They said: "He is going for damages as a result of the ‘propaganda’ aired against him to recover lost earnings, which lawyers believe could total up to £10 million."

That's what Haye might be bringing ITV's way, but to win any possible lawsuit against the broadcaster Joseph McCaughley, Reputation Management partner at law firm Spencer West LLP said it'd take more than a 'negative impression'.

The legal expert explained: "Reality television contestants typically sign contracts giving producers wide editorial control over how footage is selected, edited and presented, and often restricting their ability to bring claims about how they are portrayed."

"A claim will only succeed if the programme crosses the threshold into a legal wrong – not simply because it creates a negative impression."

If people could easily sue TV channels for them looking bad when they went on reality TV then it'd be a feast for the lawyers, and McCaughley said for success in a lawsuit of this kind it'd need something like the show's editing giving 'a false account of what actually happened'.

The legal expert said that'd fall into the area of 'suggesting sustained bullying or abusive conduct that did not occur, or behaviour implying dishonesty or aggression that is factually inaccurate'.

David Haye is reportedly suing ITV over the way I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! South Africa was edited (ITV)

If Haye is suing ITV and wants a chance of winning then that's what he'll have to prove, that I'm A Celeb went beyond showing him in a negative light and that what was shown on screen was edited in such a way that it gave viewers a 'false account'.

A source told the Sun that Haye 'can cite examples', pointing towards 'the Gemma Collins ‘fat-shaming’ moment' which they said 'used clever editing and snide eye-rolls, etc to make his remark look damning'.

"His lawyers will go through the series with a fine-toothed comb to find more," they said.

On the other hand, a complaint is probably not going to go anywhere if a reality show is 'portraying someone as rude, arrogant, or unlikeable, or using selective editing, music and reaction shots to heighten that impression'.

That's because it's 'part of editorial storytelling and is commonplace in this kind of programme'.

McCaughley said that wouldn't be enough for a lawsuit and if Haye claimed 'irreparable damage to his brand' that wouldn't fly alone as there's 'no freestanding right to reputation in English law'.

It'd take something more recognised like 'defamation or breaches of privacy or data protection'.

Kishan Pattni, Reputation Management partner at law firm Freeths LLP, said it was 'notoriously difficult to win' claims over how reality TV is edited since the law is more about protecting 'against false statements of fact'.

It'd take proving that due to editing what ended up on people's screens was a portrayal of events that didn't happen (ITV)

Pattni said that if Haye or Bullard were going to bring legal proceedings against ITV they'd 'need to establish that I’m A Celebrity... South Africa conveyed a genuinely false and defamatory meaning presented as fact, rather than a matter of impression, narrative or opinion'.

If they could manage to do that then it'd put the burden on ITV 'for proving the meaning was true'.

In his view he reckons ITV have 'exercised editorial judgment to present a characterisation of the participants', and if someone's coming across as a 'pantomime villain' or 'bad guy' on reality TV then that's still a matter of opinion rather than fact.

Like his fellow legal expert he pointed out that most reality TV shows have agreements which put a lot of power in the hands of show producers over how they edit their footage into episodes and portray people on screen.

The LADbible Group has contacted ITV and David Haye's representatives for comment.