Aide ‘tried hard to protect Duchess’s privacy’

Former press secretary to the Sussexes details his efforts to guard Meghan’s reputation in legal letter

THE DUCHESS OF SUSSEX’S former press secretary has insisted he led “extensive efforts” to protect her privacy and reputation during her time as a working member of the Royal family.

Jason Knauf, who worked for both the Sussexes and the Cambridges before the two households split and is now chief executive of Prince William’s Royal Foundation, appeared to refute the Duchess’s claim that she was “unprotected” by Kensington Palace staff, saying he “regularly” objected to coverage deemed “unfair or untrue”.

In a letter sent to the Mail on Sunday’s solicitors in connection with her legal case against the newspaper, Mr Knauf revealed that he also “made significant efforts over many months” to advise and support the Duchess’s father, Thomas Markle, and protect him from media intrusion. In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, the pregnant Duchess, 39, suggested her communications team had failed to defend her from inaccurate stories and refused to take action when false allegations were made.

She also alleged that her Kensington Palace team had lied about her to protect other members of the family.

The Duchess said: “I came to understand that not only was I not being protected, but that they were willing to lie to protect other members of the family.”

Mr Knauf advised the Duchess over the composition of the letter she wrote to her father, which Mr Markle later gave to the Mail on Sunday, prompting her to successfully sue the newspaper for breach of privacy and copyright.

Although the Duchess had admitted that Mr Knauf “provided feedback” in the form of “general ideas”, his solicitors denied that he was a co-author or had any copyright claim over its contents.

Lawyers for the Queen stated that copyright did not belong to the Crown, clearing the way for the Duchess to secure a full victory on her claim.

Mr Knauf ’s solicitors insisted in their letter, released by the High Court yesterday, that he remained “strictly neutral”. But they said he wanted to set out “his account of the background to and context of his involvement” in advising the Duchess over the five-page missive.

“From 2016 Mr Knauf led extensive efforts to protect the privacy and reputation of the Duchess and, as and when directed by her, the privacy of her parents,” the legal letter said.

“This included drafting a press statement in November 2016, issued in his own name, condemning racist and sexist coverage of Ms Markle, as she then was, and other regular interventions – directly to media and through the Independent Press Standards Organisation – to request privacy both for her and for her parents.”

Mr Knauf was “involved in providing advice and offering support with a view to protecting her father from media intrusion”, including “many conversations with Mr Markle and a number of interventions… to object to intrusions into Mr Markle’s privacy”, it added.

This support continued “even after the Mail On Sunday reported that Mr Markle had allegedly been cooperating with press photographers”.