Meghan case is all about her ‘unflattering’ image: claim
THE Duchess of Sussex has been accused of being more concerned about the “unflattering” effect of the publication of letter extracts written to her estranged father than any breach of her data protection rights.
The claim is made in a legal document submitted to the High Court by the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, responding to Meghan’s legal action over an article featuring parts of a handwritten letter to Thomas Markle.
Papers from the duchess’s solicitors have previously said the “true sentiment” of the letter was Meghan’s concern about her father’s welfare and his exploitation by tabloid newspapers, which he should stop talking to.
But the legal team for Associated Newspapers said in its published document: “If the claimant had been or was concerned about her father and his welfare, she would not have cut her father, a sick 75-year-old man, out of her life for the perceived sin of speaking to the Press about his daughter who had become a famous royal duchess.”
Meghan “caused or permitted”, the legal paper claims, her close friend Jessica Mulroney to contact the duchess’s former commercial adviser who gave an interview to the Mail on Sunday in a bid to ensure “a more favourable article was published”.
Ms Mulroney, a Canadian stylist and TV star, wrote to Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne “putting pressure on her to withdraw or change statements”, claims the legal team for the publisher. Mr Markle is the main witness for Associated Newspapers and if the case reaches a full court hearing, both Meghan and her father could be called to testify against one another, with the paper’s sister publication the Daily Mail reporting that the retired lighting director would be prepared to face her in court.
The duchess is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.
In the papers, Mr Markle claimed the duchess sent him only occasional “modest” financial gifts after landing a role in the hit TV series Suits, even though he was still paying off her college debts.