ROYAL LETTER SENSATION: AIDE’S BOMBSHELL CLAIMS
Insider had a key role with the brothers
PALACE staffer Jason Knauf was employed as communications secretary to William, Kate and Harry from February 2015 to May 2018.
After the royal wedding in 2018, he worked for both couples – a post he held until March 2019.
When Harry and Meghan quit their royal roles and set up life in America, Knauf took up a job as an adviser to William.
In March this year, it was reported that Knauf made a complaint against Meghan, related to two personal assistants and a third member of staff whose confidence she is alleged to have undermined. A spokesman for the Sussexes has said Meghan has been the victim of “a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation”.
Knauf is now chief executive of the Cambridges’ Royal Foundation but announced in May that he will leave his post at the end of the year.
The Cambridges paid tribute to him, saying they were “immensely grateful for his hard work and commitment”, describing him as an “integral part” of their team.
He said: “Working with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been the privilege of my career. I will always be grateful for the opportunity.”
THE Duchess of Sussex called her estranged father “Daddy” in a handwritten letter so that it would pull at the heartstrings if it was leaked, a court heard yesterday.
A former royal aide revealed a catalogue of bombshell evidence against his former boss, claiming Meghan’s note to Thomas Markle was sent with the “understanding” it could be made public.
In a day of high drama at the Court of Appeal, a statement from Jason Knauf revealed how the Duchess messaged him in 2018 with a draft of the letter, asking if anything stood out as a “liability”.
Meghan previously claimed that she wrote the “private” note to her father to plead with him to stop giving interviews after the disintegration of their relationship.
The breakdown followed her wedding to Prince Harry in May that year.
But Knauf, an ex-communications secretary to the Duke of Sussex and his wife until March 2019, claimed the former actress told him she had “obviously” written the letter “with the understanding that it could be leaked”.
He said Meghan added she had been “meticulous” in her choice of words and she had “toiled over every detail which could be manipulated”, the court heard.
The new claims come as part of an appeal by the publisher of the Mail On Sunday, Associated Newspapers Limited.
It is challenging a High Court ruling that publishing extracts of the letter was unlawful.
Meghan had claimed the articles in February 2019 misused her private information, infringed her copyright and breached the Data Protection Act.
Lord Justice Warby ruled in February that the publication of the Duchess’s letter to her father was “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful”.
The judge said: “It was, in short, a personal and private letter.”
Associated’s lawyers have asked to rely on Knauf ’s new witness statement, which was not produced in the previous case, in their legal bid to overturn the High Court’s decision to rule in Meghan’s favour without a trial.
In further texts between Meghan and Knauf, the Duchess said: “Obviously everything I’ve drafted is with the understanding it could be leaked, so I have been meticulous in my word choice.
“But please do let me know if anything stands out for you as a liability.”
The court was also told she was “happy for the public to read” the letter she sent her dad if he leaked it to the press.
A second message reads: “Given I’ve only ever called him Daddy, it may make sense to open as such despite him being less than paternal.
“And in the unfortunate event that it leaked, it would pull at the heart strings.
“If he leaks it, then that’s on his conscious [sic] but at least the world will know the truth.”
Knauf said Meghan had wanted to write a letter rather than email or text so it would not be forwarded or cut and pasted.
He added she numbered the pages carefully. Knauf said: “She deliberately
Meghan said she had ‘toiled over every detail which could be manipulated’ JASON KNAUF IN STATEMENT HEARD AT COURT OF APPEAL YESTERDAY
ended each page part way through a sentence so that no page could be falsely presented as the end of the letter. “In the event it was leaked, she wanted the full narrative as set out in the letter to be understood and shared. “She said she had ‘toiled over every detail which could be manipulated’.” The court heard Meghan later texted Knauf again, saying: “Honestly Jason, I feel fantastic. Cathartic and real and honest
and factual. And if he leaks it then that’s on his conscience.
“And at least the world will know the truth, words I could never voice.”
In his statement, Knauf said he has been persistently asked to be involved by both sides in the case and was not required due to the judge’s “summary judgement”.
But he added he had co-operated as he believed it was “the right thing to do, to set out information that I am advised may be relevant to the court’s considerations”. Knauf now works as CEO for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Foundation.
He is also the Palace staffer who reportedly submitted a bullying complaint in October 2018 to protect aides who were allegedly coming under pressure from Meghan, 40.
In a 22-page witness statement provided to the court, the Duchess said she did not think the letter was “likely” to be leaked.
But she “merely recognised this was a possibility given the extraordinary level of media attention and unusual lens we were all under”.
Meghan said: “I did not think that my father would sell or leak the letter, primarily because it would not put him in a good light...
“It seemed incredibly unlikely he would disclose the contents because they contained unpalatable truths”.
The mother-of-two’s legal team is seeking to uphold the finding of the earlier court.
The Mail on Sunday faced a requirement to publish a front-page statement on Meghan’s case, which
MEGHAN has apologised to a court for failing to remember she authorised a palace aide to co-operate with the authors of her biography.
She and Harry have previously insisted they were not involved in the book Finding Freedom.
And co-author Omid Scobie, inset, had also claimed “any suggestion the Duke and Duchess collaborated on the book is false”.
But the Court of Appeal heard former aide Jason Knauf’s statement saying the book was “discussed on a routine basis” and directly so with Meghan multiple times.
Knauf also claimed Meghan and Harry “authorised specific co-operation in writing” with the authors of a glowing biography about them in 2018.
Meghan emailed Knauf a list of briefing points she wanted him to deliver to the authors, including information about her relationship with her step-siblings and father.
In a further twist, Harry appeared to offer to speak to the authors himself, has been put on hold pending the appeal’s outcome. The hearing is due to end today with a judgment handed down at a later date.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cambridge yesterday officially opened two galleries at the Imperial War Museum in London charting the story of the Holocaust and World War II.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said Kate’s “presence demonstrates her clear personal dedication to our cause. We could not be more grateful.”