Meghan hits out after court ruling
THE Duchess of Sussex has hit out at the publisher of The Mail on Sunday after it lost an appeal against her privacy victory over a handwritten letter to her estranged father.
Meghan, 40, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), also the publisher of MailOnline, over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter to Thomas Markle, 77, in August 2018.
The duchess won her case earlier this year when a High Court judge ruled in her favour without a full trial.
ANL brought an appeal against that decision and, at a three-day hearing in November, argued the case should go to a trial on Meghan’s claims against the publisher – including breach of privacy and copyright.
The publisher’s lawyers argued that new evidence from Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, suggested Meghan wrote the letter with the understanding that it could be leaked.
But the appeal was dismissed by Court of Appeal judges in a ruling yesterday.
In a statement after the judgment was made public, Meghan accused ANL of treating the court case as a “game with no rules”.
The duchess said: “From day one I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules.”
She added: “In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation and calculated attacks.
“Today, the courts ruled in my favour – again – cementing that The Mail on Sunday, owned by Lord Jonathan Rothermere, has broken the law.”
Lawyers representing the publisher said at the earlier hearing that Mr Markle wished to counter points made by friends of Meghan who had given an interview to
People magazine in the US.
Andrew Caldecott QC, for the publisher, told the court the People article accused Mr Markle of having “cold-shouldered” his daughter in the run up to her wedding to the Duke of Sussex, and of having lied about her shutting him out.
The barrister also said the article implied Mr Markle had given a “cynical and selfinterested response” and ignored her pleas for reconciliation in a “loving letter” - all while Meghan remained “dutiful” and supportive of him.
But, dismissing the publisher’s appeal, Sir Geoffrey Vos said: “The judge had been in as good a position as any trial judge to look at the article in People magazine, the letter and The Mail On Sunday articles, to decide if publication of the contents of the letter was appropriate to rebut the allegations against Mr Markle.
“The judge had correctly decided that, whilst it might have been proportionate to publish a very small part of the letter for that purpose, it was not necessary to publish half the contents of the letter as ANL had done.”
In a statement, ANL said it is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.