Palace failed to defend me — Meghan Markle

● Lawyers for Duchess of Sussex file new papers in case against UK tabloid

Meghan Markle was left “undefended by the institution” while pregnant and a member of the royal family, her legal team have said, as they claim her wedding brought £1bn (R21.16bn) in tourism revenue to the UK.

The Duchess of Sussex, who is suing The Mail on Sunday over the publication of parts of a letter she wrote to her father, has said she was “prohibited from defending herself” against false stories, with her friends left frustrated and “silenced”.

Lawyers for Markle, who have submitted new paperwork to support her privacy claim against the paper, have laid out her version of events surrounding an interview given by five of her friends to People magazine last year in an attempt to defend her.

In doing so, they spell out her frustrations with the palace’s approach to the media.

The extraordinary submissions confirm the conflict between the palace and the duchess’s approach to the press on record for the first time, stating the institution’s policy of “no comment” to media stories was deployed “without any discussion with or approval by the claimant”.

In one section, about the level of “wealth and privilege” the couple enjoyed in Britain, Markle’s team say their public funding was “relatively nominal”, with costs for the May 2018 wedding met by Prince Charles and security paid only for the protection of crowds.

“This contribution of public funds towards crowd security was far outweighed by the tourism revenue of over one billion pounds sterling that was generated from the royal wedding ... which went directly into the public purse,” they say.

The documents also detail the precise plans for bringing the duchess’s father to the UK for the wedding.

Future court submissions will share even more personal detail, papers promise, saying: “The intention of the letter was to make him [Thomas Markle] stop his actions; it was not an attempt at reconciliation.”

The tabloid’s owner, Associated Newspapers, wholly denies the allegations, particularly a claim that the letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.

No date has been set for the full trial.

The tabloid’s owner, Associated Newspapers, wholly denies the allegations