Special report: A leading agent and two Olympians fell out when their talent agency was sold, leading to ‘three years of torture’ which came to a sudden end after the emergence of text messages sent to a phone registered to Barnett
A high-court claim that had pitted the leading sports agent Jonathan Barnett against his former business partners, Olympic medallists John Regis and Jennifer Stoute, was withdrawn following an extraordinary three-year legal battle.
A partnership of which Barnett was a member, the sports agency Stellar Athletics LLP, pursued a claim against Regis and Stoute for £1.2m after they left the partnership in 2021. It was settled by the parent company, CAA Stellar, in April 2024, shortly after Barnett himself resigned from the company.
Speaking about the matter for the first time, Stoute described the case as “three years of torture”.
Stellar Athletics LLP, in court documents signed by Barnett, claimed it was owed £952,000 by Regis and Stoute for money they were alleged to have taken in excess of their profit share to cover costs incurred while working for the company for 20 years, plus around £300,000 in damages after the pair left and set up a rival agency, Astra Partners.
