Keep your friends a secret for now, judge tells Meghan
FIVE friends of Meghan Markle were granted anonymity yesterday by a judge ‘for the time being’.
In a victory for Ms Markle, the identities of her ‘inner circle’ who gave an interview about her will remain a secret.
She had argued naming them publicly would be an ‘unacceptable price to pay’ in her court case against The Mail on Sunday.
Judge Warby granted her application. But he warned that, ‘in the interests of transparency’, the five could be unmasked later if it goes to a trial.
They are central to the case in which Meghan, 39, is suing the Daily Mail’s sister publication for publishing extracts from a letter she sent to her estranged father Thomas Markle, 76.
She says the letter was private. But the paper says Mr Markle only revealed the letter after her friends had already done so by mentioning it in an anonymous interview they gave to US magazine People.
Mr Markle was entitled to set the record straight because they had mischaracterised the letter as a ‘loving’ missive, it was claimed.
The High Court trial, dubbed ‘Markle vs Markle’ because Meghan’s father has indicated that he will give evidence against his daughter, is expected to take seven to ten days and be heard in January or February.
Ms Markle’s lawyers argued that the friends deserved ‘a very high level of supercharged right of confidentiality’.
They were named by her as the magazine’s sources in a document submitted to the court marked ‘confidential schedule’.
The newspaper then asked the judge to rule on whether there was a legal basis for the confidentiality, given the principle of open justice in British courtrooms.
Giving his ruling yesterday, Judge Warby said: ‘I have concluded that for the time being at least, the court should grant [the duchess] the order she seeks.’ He added: ‘This is an interim decision.’
The judge said that the publicity around the case was a factor in his decision.
He added that both sides had taken steps to generate publicity about it whenever there was a development such as a new document filed to the court.
And he said there was evidence to suggest that Ms Markle’s advisers were ‘energetically briefing the media about these proceedings from the outset’.
The judge said a copy of Ms Markle’s
witness statement had been posted on the Twitter feed of Omid Scobie, co-author of the biography on Meghan and Harry, Finding Freedom, accompanied by a quotation attributed to ‘a close source’.
He said the newspaper group had also published articles based on its own and Ms Markle’s legal submissions.
Judge Warby ruled that keeping the five friends anonymous ‘supports the proper administration of justice by shielding the friends from “the glare of publicity” in the pre-trial stage’.
He added: ‘Generally it does not help the interests of justice if those involved in litigation are subjected to, or surrounded by, a frenzy of publicity.’
But the judge said this might change if the five friends became witnesses in a full trial, saying: ‘At trial, that is a price that may have to be paid in the interests of transparency.’
‘Energetically briefing the media’