Meghan court battle: Palace Four to shed light on letter to dad
FOUR former royal aides are ready to testify in the Duchess of Sussex’s legal action against a newspaper but say they have no interest in taking sides.
The Palace Four, as they have been described by lawyers at the High Court, may have evidence that could “shed some light” on how Meghan came to write a controversial letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle.
They could also testify on whether the Duchess thought her words would become public and if she had provided private information for a biography about her and Prince Harry.
The four aides are: Jason Knauf, the couple’s former communications’s secretary – alleged to have helped the Duchess on the wording of her letter to her father – Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary, Samantha Cohen, former private secretary, and Sara Latham, who took over as communications secretary when the couple set up their household.
Meghan, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers
Limited – publishers of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline – for breach of privacy and copyright over five articles in February 2018 which reproduced “extensive extracts” from a handwritten letter she sent to her 76-year-old father in August 2018 pleading with him to stop talking to the media.
Her lawyers say publication of the letter, after Mr Markle decided to go public with it to argue against his daughter’s version of events, was “self-evidently...highly intrusive” and described it as “a triple-barrelled invasion of privacy rights”.
But ANL insists Meghan wrote the letter “with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point” in order to “defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter”. She denies that claim.
On the second day of Meghan’s attempt to win a summary judgment in her favour and avoid a lengthy trial later this year, Antony White QC for the newspaper, argued that the Duchess’s admission that Mr Knauf helped her to write the letter to her father was a “public-facing issue” that needed to be explored properly.
“Why was the Kensington Palace communications team involved at all in the wording of the letter if it was a wholly private letter?” he asked.
The Palace Four’s lawyers said in a letter to the court that none welcomed becoming involved in the case. “Nor do any of our clients wish to take sides. Our clients are all strictly neutral,” it said.
“They have no interest in assisting either party. Their only interest is ensuring a level playing field, in so far as evidence they may be able to give is concerned.”
The letter continued that their lawyers’ “preliminary view is that one or more of our clients would be in a position to shed some light” on “the creation of the letter”.
It also said they may be able to shed light on “whether or not the claimant anticipated the letter might come into the public domain” and whether or not Meghan “directly or indirectly provided private information to the authors of Finding Freedom” – a biography of the Duke and Duchess by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
Justin Rushbrooke QC, for Meghan, said there was no evidence to support ANL’s case. Mr Justice Warby, the judge overseeing the hearing, reserved judgment until a later date.
‘Why was the communications team involved if it was a private letter?’