Harry and Meghan sue over her letter to estranged father
THE Duchess of Sussex has started legal action over an allegation that one of her private letters was published unlawfully.
Schillings, her legal firm, said she had filed a High Court claim over the alleged misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.
In a highly personal statement published on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s official website yesterday, Harry said the royal couple had been driven to take legal action after the ‘painful’ impact of ‘relentless propaganda’ against his wife from the British tabloid Press.
The duchess is taking action against The Mail on Sunday – the Daily Mail’s sister paper – and its publisher Associated Newspapers, for publishing a letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, after they fell out over her wedding to Harry.
In the letter, she accused Mr Markle of breaking her heart ‘into a million pieces’ by giving interviews to the Press, ‘ fabricating stories’ and attacking her new husband.
The legal proceedings in the Chancery Division of the High Court are being privately funded by Harry and Meghan.
Depending on the court ruling, proceeds from any damages will be donated to an antibullying charity.
In his statement, Harry said he and Meghan believed in ‘media freedom and objective, truthful reporting’ as a ‘cornerstone of democracy’.
Addressing readers, he added: ‘Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid Press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences – a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son.
‘ There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been.
‘Because in today’s digital age, press fabrications are repurposed as truth across the globe. One day’s coverage is no longer tomorrow’s chip-paper.’
Harry said the couple, who are on a royal tour of southern Africa, had been unable to correct ‘continual misrepresentations’ in the Press.
He said ‘positive’ coverage of the tour exposed ‘the double standards of this specific press pack that has vilified her almost daily for the past nine months’.
The duke added: ‘They have been able to create lie after lie at her expense simply because she has not been visible while on maternity leave.
‘She is the same woman she was a year ago on our wedding day, just as she is the same woman you’ve seen on this Africa tour.
‘For these select media this is a game, and one that we have been unwilling to play from the start.
‘I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long. To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in.’
Referring to Press coverage of his mother, Princess Diana, the duke said his ‘deepest fear is history repeating itself’.
He wrote: ‘I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or
‘Same woman she was a year ago’
seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.’
Harry claimed The Mail on Sunday had misled readers by ‘strategically omitting select paragraphs, specific sentences, and even singular words to mask the lies they had perpetuated for over a year’. Last night, a spokesman for the newspaper said: ‘The Mail on Sunday stands by the story it published and will be defending this case vigorously.
‘Specifically, we categorically deny that the duchess’s letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.’