Sydney, Aug. 12 : Australian magazine New Idea has apologised to Bec Hewitt, the wife of tennis star Lleyton Hewitt, for a story labelling her brother as the new "special guy" in her life.

Bec Hewitt launched legal action against publisher Pacific Publications in July, seeking to find out who told the magazine her brother Shaun Cartwright was the new man in her life, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sydney Confidential reports.

The story was based on photographs of the pair taken in the US in April and Hewitt wants to know where the information for the corresponding story came from.

Yesterday PacPubs issued an apology for the story to Hewitt, but indicated it would fight to protect its sources when legal argument is heard in the South Australian Supreme Court on Friday.

Last month paparazzo Jamie Fawcett - who''d photographed Hewitt and an unknown man in the US a month before the story appeared - maintained he was definitely not the source. (ANI)