Meghan faces court quiz over gushing biography
She loses bid to prevent being asked about book in high-stakes privacy trial
MEGHAN Markle is set to be questioned under oath about whether she ‘collaborated’ with the authors of a gushing royal biography.
The Duchess of Sussex will also be grilled over whether she authorised others to cooperate with the writers of Finding Freedom, which details her and Harry’s decision to quit frontline royal duties.
The explosive biography, published last month, charts Meghan and Harry’s departure ‘in a way that is favourable’ to them, the High Court has heard.
Meghan, who has denied feeding personal secrets to the authors, yesterday lost her bid to prevent the book being raised in her forthcoming privacy battle with The Mail on Sunday. In addition, a judge ordered Meghan to pay the newspaper’s £39,000 legal costs for the hearing – as well as her own side’s fees of £139,000.
The duchess, 39, is set to take the witness stand at the Royal Courts of Justice in a twoweek trial starting on January 11.
She is suing the Daily Mail’s sister paper for breach of privacy after it published extracts from a letter she sent her estranged father Thomas Markle in 2018. The newspaper says Mr Markle, 76, was entitled to make the extracts public after Meghan’s ‘inner circle’ spoke about the letter in anonymous interviews with US magazine People, in which they accused him of lying.
The duchess has categorically denied knowing that five of her best friends had granted the interviews.
The newspaper alleges that she must have been aware. It also says that the content of Finding Freedom – packed with insights that could only have come from Meghan or Harry – indicates the duchess’s willingness to ‘extensively co-operate’ with writers.
After Finding Freedom was published, lawyers for The Mail on Sunday applied to amend its defence to the duchess’s court claim, in order to include the book. The duchess opposed the application, arguing that Finding Freedom was irrelevant.
In yesterday’s preliminary hearing, Master Francesca Kaye ruled against Meghan and said the book could be included in the trial. She concluded: ‘[The duchess] says she had nothing to do with the information put into the public domain – either directly or indirectly – including the book. She says “it was not me and had nothing to do with me”. If that is her case, it is a simple case. If it is a house of cards, then it will fall down quickly at trial. But I am satisfied the amendfather ments [to the newspaper’s defence] are arguable and not fanciful.’
The High Court has heard the duchess could be awarded a five-figure sum if she wins the forthcoming case. However, her own legal costs are predicted to reach £1.8million.
Lawyers for The Mail on Sunday have argued it is ‘difficult to see’ how Meghan could complain about extracts of her letter to her estranged being published when she and Harry had helped with Finding Freedom, which exposed their private thoughts and feelings.
Justin Rushbrooke QC, for the duchess, previously told the court that Meghan and Harry ‘did not collaborate’ with Finding Freedom’s authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. Meghan’s lawyers have dismissed the book as ‘extremely anodyne’ and riddled with errors.
Mr Scobie gave a witness statement to the court in which he insisted Meghan had neither authorised nor been interviewed for the book. However, the judge said this did not amount to ‘a knockout blow’, adding: ‘It is not what he says, but what he did not say that may be instructive at trial.’
At an earlier hearing, Antony White QC said the book ‘gives every appearance of having been written with [the Sussexes’] extensive co-operation’.
‘Extensive co-operation’