MEG WIN IN FIGHT OVER DAD LETTER
Privacy breach appeal dismissed
THE Mail on Sunday has lost an appeal to overturn Meghan Markle’s court victory concerning a letter she wrote to her dad.
It means the case will not proceed to trial and the Duchess of Sussex will not come face-to-face with her estranged father in court.
The ruling came despite Meghan making a misleading statement in her privacy case against the paper.
After the Court of Appeal’s decision yesterday, the duchess said the defendant had treated the lawsuit as “a game with no rules”. She added: “The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public… “In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation and calculated attacks.” The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s ruling in February against the paper’s owner, Associated Newspapers, that publishing the letter was unlawful.
The judgment yesterday said: “The Mail on Sunday articles interfered with [her] reasonable expectation of privacy and were not a justified… means of correcting inaccuracies about the letter.”
Associated Newspapers said it is “very disappointed” and is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. Permission to grant this next step is usually refused. The paper’s lawyers argued new evidence suggested Meghan wrote the letter with the understanding it could be leaked.
During the appeal hearing last month, the newspaper provided claims that it alleged threatened her credibility.
It was revealed she asked an aide to give information to the authors of a book about her. Meghan, who had denied any involvement in the book, apologised to the court for “forgetting” the exchange.
The court said the lapse was “at best, an unfortunate lapse of memory” but that it had no bearing on the appeal.