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Ferdinand, 32, brought a case for misuse of private information against MGN Ltd over a Sunday Mirror article in which interior designer Carly Storey gave her account of their 13-year relationship in return for £16,000.
The judge justice Nicol had been asked to award the England player a maximum of £50,000 damages and a worldwide gagging injunction.
But he said: “Overall, in my judgment, the balancing exercise favours the defendant’s right of freedom of expression over the claimant’s right of privacy.”
Ferdinand has branded the April 2010 piece - “My affair with England captain Rio” - a “gross invasion of my privacy”, and insisted he had not seen Storey for six years by the time it appeared.
The article claimed that Ferdinand, who has three children with wife Rebecca, ended the relationship within days of being made England captain in February 2010.
MGN said it was in the public interest to run the story about the centre-back, who replaced John Terry as England captain before Terry was reinstated by manager Fabio Capello this year.
Its lawyer Gavin Millar said at a hearing in London in July that Ferdinand was appointed England captain on the basis of being reformed and responsible.
In fact, as the article said, this was not the case, he added.
He argued that the case was not really about Ferdinand’s privacy but about the effect on the public image he had so painstakingly constructed, and was without merit.
The judge refused Ferdinand permission to appeal, although he can renew his application directly to the Court of Appeal.
Ferdinand now faces a bill for legal costs unofficially estimated at around £500,000 with £100,000 to be paid to MGN within 14 days on account of its £161,000 costs.
In his ruling, the judge said there was a public interest in the article.
“At one level it was a ‘kiss-and-tell’ story,” he said. “Even less attractively, it was a ‘kiss and paid for telling’ story, but stories may be in the public interest even if the reasons behind the informant providing the information are less than noble.”
He said that before 2006, Ferdinand seemed to have had “something of a wild reputation”.
An interview which he gave to the News of the World in January 2006, in which he was portrayed as a reformed character, was significant, and this was followed by his autobiography and numerous other articles, in which the same theme was echoed.
Another factor was Ferdinand’s appointment as captain. “On the evidence presented in this case, it is by no means a universal view that the captain’s role is confined to what happens on the pitch or what affects the players’ performance.”