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Meghan Markle is suing Associated Newspapers over articles in her Mail on Sunday newspaper printed in February last year that included parts of a letter she had sent to her father.
FILE: The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. Image: Kayleen Morgan / EWN
LONDON – The Duchess of Sussex’s legal action against a British tabloid for violating her privacy had her first court hearing on Friday, with the newspaper’s lawyer trying to claim that she had acted dishonestly.
Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, Prince Harry, is suing Associated Newspapers for articles that Mail on Sunday newspaper printed in February last year that included parts of a letter he had sent to his father, Thomas Markle.
The case is the latest step in the growing hostility between the media and the couple, now based in North America, who announced this week that they would have a “zero commitment” to four of Britain’s top tabloids.
The duchess’s lawyers say the publication of the letter was a misuse of private information and violated her copyright. They seek aggravated damage from the newspaper.
As part of the claim, attorneys accuse the Mail and other newspapers of harassing, humiliating and manipulating Thomas Markle, and of contributing to the consequences between father and daughter.
They discuss the Mail He had deliberately omitted parts of the letter, which he never intended to make public, to paint royalty in low light.
Antony White, the attorney representing the MailShe searched in a pre-trial hearing on Friday to have allegations that the newspaper had acted dishonestly and fueled the removed crack in the case, along with references to other articles on royalty that she said were false.
He said it was “remarkable” that the claim about Markle’s treatment had been made without the Duchess having contacted her father to see if he agreed.
Given Britain’s closure of the coronavirus, Friday’s hearing, one of the first stages of legal action, was conducted by video, with lawyers and journalists remotely joining in.
Megan and Harry listen
Meghan and Harry, who live in the Los Angeles area who resigned their royal roles late last month, were also expected to listen, a source said.
The case centers on articles published in February 2019 about the gap between Meghan and her father, who fell after her pomp-heavy wedding to Harry in May of the previous year.
Markle retired days before the wedding after undergoing heart surgery and after news that she had taken photos with a paparazzi photographer. Speculation about her attendance dominated the preparation of the ceremony and she has not spoken to Meghan since.
the Mail He says unidentified friends of Meghan put their side of the events in interviews with the American magazine _People _ and that Markle had the right to side with him. The newspaper’s attorneys also contend that given Meghan’s actual status, there was a legitimate public interest in her personal and family relationships.
At the hearing, White dismissed the accusation that the tabloid newspaper had acted dishonestly or maliciously by publishing excerpts from the letter he sent to his father in August 2018, and said it should be dismissed as irrelevant.
In response, Meghan’s attorney, David Sherborne, said that editing the letter had been very misleading.
“It was disclosed for the sole and totally free purpose of satisfying the newspaper readers’ curiosity regarding the plaintiff’s private life, a curiosity deliberately generated by the defendant,” Sherborne said.
He argued the Mail he had followed a schedule of posting offensive stories about Meghan.
“If the defense wants to question her … they can,” Sherborne said, indicating that the duchess may appear on the dock in the future trial. The Courier has already suggested that his father could be a witness.
Judge Mark Warby said he expected to give his decision on Friday’s problems within a week. A date for a full test has not yet been set.
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