www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/arlene-foster-libel-case-tvs-dr-christian-jessen-constructed-reality-which-did-not-exist-court-40455940.html
"The judge then asked Dr Jessen about a series of podcasts he had made during lockdown.
Mr Justice McAlinden referred to a podcast in which Dr Jessen had referenced taking part in video games on his X-Box with his partner.
He said: “That is an impression of a domestic scene with your partner in an apartment of some nature. That is a world away from someone who is living an isolated life with his parents.”
Dr Jessen said: “One of the many pernicious aspects of depression is the way one can hide it. It is the way one can disguise one’s feelings and can carry on with life.”
Another podcast referred to Dr Jessen and his partner engaging in a video chat with friends to cheer them up during lockdown.
He told the court: “You create a persona, it is not necessarily actuality. I am very conscious that plonkers like me can give advice that is a million miles away from our own lives.”
The judge said: “In essence what you are saying is that these events didn’t happen. You were constructing a reality which didn’t exist to provide a good example for others.”
Giving evidence last month, Mrs Foster said she felt “humiliated” after the celebrity doctor tweeted the unsubstantiated rumour of an extra-marital affair.
Later, the judge heard submissions from counsel for both sides on Dr Jessen’s claim that he did not receive legal papers from Mrs Foster’s lawyers.
Dr Jessen’s council Gavin Millar QC said there was no record of his client being dishonest and described his podcasts as a “piece of entertainment”.
He said: “He podcasts as a doctor, it is partly for entertainment, it is partly to maintain his profile. It is a piece of entertainment, they have artistic licence, it is not vaguely comparable to lying on oath.”
Mrs Foster’s counsel David Ringland QC said of Dr Jessen: “He compounded his problems today in the witness box when he was trying to explain away the inexplicable in relation to tweets and podcasts.
“The idea that someone like him, an entertainer no less, is entitled to be dishonest because that is apparently an entertainer’s licence and for a good reason, that is a different type of dishonesty, that is stretching credibility to breaking point.
“The detail he has gone into would conform exactly with what he says he was doing. This idea of a construct doesn’t stand any form of examination.”