‘Palace Four’ may be able to shed light on Meghan’s letter to father, court told

FOUR former employees of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have evidence which could “shed some light” on Meghan’s handwritten letter to her estranged father, the High Court has been told.

Meghan, 39, is suing the publisher of The Mail On Sunday and Mailonline over five articles in February 2019 which reproduced “extensive extracts” from the handwritten letter sent to 76-yearold Thomas Markle.

The duchess sent the “heartfelt” five-page letter to her father’s home in Mexico “via a trusted contact” in August 2018 in order to “minimise the risk of interception”, the High Court has previously heard.

Meghan’s lawyers say the publication of the letter was “selfevidently ... highly intrusive”, describing it as “a triple-barrelled invasion of her privacy rights”.

Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) claims 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”, which she denies.

Meghan is seeking damages from ANL for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act, and says ANL has “no prospect” of defending her privacy and copyright claims.

On the second day of the hearing yesterday, ANL’S barrister Antony

White QC told the court that a letter from lawyers representing the so-called “Palace Four” said they would be able to “shed some light” on the drafting of Meghan’s letter to her father.

He told the court it was also “likely” there was further evidence about whether Meghan “directly or indirectly provided private information” to the authors of an unauthorised biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom.

The letter was sent to the parties on behalf of Jason Knauf – formerly communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whom ANL “believes was involved” in the wording of Meghan’s letter – and Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary.

The other two members of the so-called “Palace Four” are Samantha Cohen, formerly the Sussexes’ private secretary, and

Sara Latham, their former director of communications.