In pictures: Richard Desmond

Desmond made his fortune through a publishing empire that included lifestyle and leisure magazines as well as adult titles such as Asian Babes and Readers' Wives. He has sold off his pornographic magazine business, but he continues to hold on to his profitable network of adult TV channels. He launched OK! magazine in April 1993 and it became the world’s biggest celebrity lifestyle magazine, with 21 overseas editions, 17 of them published under licence Photograph: Andy Watts/Rex Features

Desmond bought the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star for £125m from United News & Media in November 2000. Politicians and media rivals questioned whether he was a suitable person to own a national newspaper company Photograph: Peter J Jordan/PA

Desmond told the Guardian in a 2003 interview that he uses a duck hooter and a bell at all meetings. The hooter is used when someone comes up with a stinker of an idea and decent contributions are rewarded with the ring of a bell. 'My style is not to shout at somebody,' he said. 'Demeaning people is not nice because people are intelligent enough to get upset about it so a bell and a hooter is a bit of fun.' He also admitted he had a banana delivered on a silver tray by his butler every day at 11am and 5pm Photograph: Dan Chung/Guardian

Desmond sparked controversy in 2004 when he launched an anti-German tirade at a meeting with Daily Telegraph executives. He said Germans were 'all Nazis' and allegedly goosestepped around a boardroom in mockery of a German newspaper group's bid for the Telegraph Photograph: Dan Chung/Guardian

Richard Desmond and rapper P Diddy at the launch party for the US version of OK! magazine in September 2005. Northern & Shell invested $100m in the project; Desmond said to doubters at the time: 'You can tell all those wankers to fuck off' Photograph: Thos Robinson/Getty Images

While Desmond has been critical of his coverage in other newspapers, his own titles have never been shy of putting the spotlight on their owner's charitable activities. Here the Daily Express describes how he was 'awarded one of the world's highest accolades for his extraordinary generosity'. 'It's always a good idea to remind yourself how lucky you are,' he is quoted as saying. 'I think the more you give, the more you get back - not in material terms but in what I suppose you could call karma' Photograph: Public domain

Richard Desmond today lost his libel case against Tom Bower. Desmond claimed that Bower damaged his reputation by making him look like a 'wimp' in a small section of an unauthorised biography he wrote about the jailed media baron Conrad Black Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Desmond's wealth has fallen to £950m this year from £1.9bn last July, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. Profits at RCD1 Ltd, the holding company for his Northern & Shell publishing empire, fell 25% to £41.6m last year as the recession took hold. His papers have been hit by a string of libel payouts over the past 18 months, including the double front-page apology in the Daily Express and Daily Star for libellous stories about Kate and Gerry McCann after the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine Photograph: David Levene/Guardian