Will the duchess still face her dad in court?

THE Duchess of Sussex could still face her father in court after a newspaper yesterday launched a bid to appeal the case she won last month.

The Mail on Sunday’s lawyers gave the High Court ten reasons why they say a senior judge got it wrong when he ruled in her favour.

Meghan won her claim that the newspaper breached her privacy by publishing extracts from a letter she sent her estranged father Thomas Markle. Lord Justice Warby handed victory to her in a ‘summary judgment’ in February without a trial being held.

Now the Mail on Sunday – the Daily Mail’s sister newspaper – is seeking permission to appeal, saying the case ‘cried out’ for the duchess to be cross-examined on oath.

If an appeal was both granted and then won, Meghan would again face the prospect of a courtroom clash with Mr Markle, who backs the newspaper’s case.

Among the ten grounds of appeal put forward yesterday, it was argued Mr Markle’s right to give his side of the story was infringed. He has said he wanted his ‘day in court’ to explain why he had decided to make parts of the letter public.

It was also argued the judge had wrongly rejected a chance to hear evidence from the ‘Palace Four’. These senior royal courtiers – Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Samantha Cohen, their former private secretary, Sara Latham, their former director of communications, and Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary – have offered to ‘shed light’ on the case by taking the witness stand at a trial.

But Lord Justice Warby had ‘disregarded the potential significance’ of what they had to offer, said Antony White QC. In written submissions, he said: ‘The judge wrongly dismissed the possibility that a trial would enable us to prove our case.’