LONDON – Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, felt “unprotected by the institution” of the British royal family while in the limelight of the press during her pregnancy, court documents released as part of a lawsuit against a British company revealed. British media.
Introduced by Meghan’s lawyers last month and obtained by NBC News on Wednesday night, legal documents say Meghan “was prohibited from defending herself” from media intrusion by the monarchy.
The documents are part of his legal action against the publisher, Associated Newspapers, over articles that appeared in the tabloid Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. Released in February 2019, they submitted parts of a “private and confidential” letter from the Duchess to her father Thomas Markle.
Meghan is suing the publisher and seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement, and breach of Britain’s Data Protection Act. If successful, she has said that any money she earns will be donated to a charity against bullying.
Court documents also reveal details about her difficult relationship with her father prior to her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018 at Windsor Castle.
Speculation about Thomas Markle’s attendance dominated the ceremony’s preparation and the 75-year-old man was expected to accompany his daughter down the aisle. But he suffered from health problems before the ceremony and the couple fell publicly before the big day.
It was also discovered that Markle had featured paparazzi photos of himself in the lead-up to the event and has since criticized the couple in television interviews.
At the first hearing in the case in April, Meghan’s lawyer David Sherborne said the newspaper had to collect parts of the “deeply personal handwritten” letter to publish in order to manipulate readers. He claimed this as part of a broader “intrusive” campaign of stories against him.
The latest court documents indicate that Meghan disabled her personal social media accounts after being engaged to Harry, and Kensington Palace took over managing much of her public communications.
It was the palace that issued a statement announcing that the duchess’s father would not be attending her wedding to Harry, they say.
The media coverage of Meghan Markle by British tabloids, specifically those owned by Associated Newspapers, “has caused great emotional distress and damage to her mental health,” they add.
The Sussex media scrutiny came as Markle was pregnant with her son Archie, and documents say she was “unprotected by the royal family institution” and “forbidden to defend herself.”
Associated newspapers declined to comment to NBC News.
The Sussexs continued to stun the public in January when they announced that they would “back down” from the royal family, divide their time between the United Kingdom and North America, and begin paying their own bills.
Since then, the couple have completed their official royal duties, attending their final event in March.
