Former Springbok captain Joost van der Westhuizen's much-publicised bid to stop the publication of a tell-all book about his troubled marriage to singer Amor Vittone was dismissed last week.

Written by entertainment journalist Gavin Prins with the title, Joost and Amor -agter die skerms (behind the scenes), the book is understood to be a chronicle of the couple’s troubled relationship, which hit rock bottom last year when their private life turned into a very public affair the local media fervently reported on.

Ten thousand copies of Joost en Amor: Agter die skerms had already been printed by Zebra Press, an imprint of Random House Struik, when Van der Westhuizen sought legal action. The book deals with the sex tape scandal that led to Van der Westhuizen and Vittone’s breakup in 2009.

Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann ruled that Van der Westhuizen had not adequately proven that book would infringe on his rights to privacy, dignity, or life. Van der Westhuizen’s lawyer had earlier argued that his client’s health would be adversely affected by the stress that the controversial book could cause. Van der Westhuizen had been diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 2011 and is now confined to a wheelchair.

Prins’ defense had argued that, as celebrities, Van der Westhuizen and Vittone’s private lives have always been aired in public and that, as such, it could be the subject of a book.

Not only has the court decided that the publication and distribution of Joost en Amor: Agter die skerms could go ahead, but it also ordered Van der Westhuizen to pay Prins’ legal costs.

Prins, who broke the sex-video scandal on the front page of Rapport, chronicles how a simple farm boy who had become a national rugby hero met the woman of his dreams and married her, only to fall from grace in the most publicly humiliating way possible. With his confession came a measure of redemption – until he was brought to his knees by a life threatening illness.

Hard-hitting, often shocking, but ultimately uplifting, this is the true story behind the sensational headlines that have dogged South Africa’s most high profile couple.

You can get your hands on this scandalous tale for R220.