BBC Apologizes for Defaming PinkNews Couple

The broadcaster retracted false sexual misconduct claims against Benjamin Cohen and Anthony James and agreed to pay substantial compensation.

By John Riley on October 11, 2026 @JRileyMW

The BBC has apologized and agreed to pay compensation to the couple behind PinkNews, an LGBTQ news website, after conceding that stories accusing them of sexual misconduct were false and defamatory.

In a statement in open court at London’s High Court on October 8, the BBC accepted that its December 2024 iPlayer documentary, PinkNews: Behind Closed Doors, and associated BBC News coverage made “a series of very serious, false, and defamatory allegations” against founder and CEO Benjamin Cohen and his husband, chief operating officer Anthony James.

The allegations centered on claims that Cohen and James had engaged in sexual misconduct toward junior employees at the LGBTQ news outlet and enabled and tolerated each other’s misconduct.

The BBC also accepted that an accompanying news article had made “false and extremely harmful” allegations that the pair had inappropriately pressured young female staff members to act as surrogates for them, according to The Guardian.

“On behalf of the defendant, I accept everything that my learned friend has said. The BBC retracts and apologizes unreservedly for the defamatory allegations made in the program and the article,” the BBC’s barrister said in court.

The widely reported allegations against the couple prompted additional investigations by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, which safeguards the interests of children involved in family court proceedings. Social workers launched investigations into the couple’s private lives and whether their son, who was born via surrogate, would be safe if left in their care.

The allegations also damaged the couple’s professional and personal reputations. Cohen resigned as a trustee of a global disability charity, while James resigned as an associate non-executive director on the board of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

“These allegations were false and extremely harmful to the claimants’ reputations,” the couple’s legal team told the court. “They were — unsurprisingly — picked up and republished by other national media outlets and across social media.”

In a joint statement after the hearing, Cohen and James said the BBC still had questions to answer about how the allegations reached publication.

“The BBC ignored warnings about the veracity of these allegations and chose to broadcast false claims to millions of people,” the couple said in the statement posted to the PinkNews website.

They also accused the BBC of reinforcing “one of the most damaging homophobic tropes: that gay men are sexual predators who pose a threat to others” by “falsely portraying us as engaging in sexual misconduct and pressuring female employees over surrogacy.

“When this began, we were new dads and our son was just six months old,” the statement continued. “What should have been one of the happiest periods of our lives was instead thrown into chaos, impacting our business, our colleagues and our family. This included being subjected to additional investigations by social workers.

“Throughout all of this, our greatest fear has been for our son’s future. We have worried about the day he goes to school and other children find these false allegations online. We have worried about what he might read about his dads, what his friends might say and what that could do to him.

“Today’s apology cannot erase what happened, but it means that when that day eventually comes, the truth will be there,” they concluded.

The couple sued the British broadcaster last year. The settlement ends the case, with the BBC agreeing to pay “substantial” compensation, according to The Guardian. Cohen and James say they will donate the money to the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Charity.

The documentary and accompanying BBC news article have been removed from the broadcaster’s websites and platforms.

The broadcaster acknowledged the settlement in a brief statement: “The BBC has reached a settlement with Ben Cohen and Anthony James. We will not be issuing any further comment.”