Meghan Markle was happy with the “flattering” interview that five of her closest friends gave to People magazine, which a London court heard on Wednesday.
The Duchess of Sussex is making a legal attempt to protect the identity of the women who reported that she was being bullied.
He is currently suing the Mail on Sunday newspaper for privacy violation after he published a private letter that he had sent to his separated father, Thomas Markle.
The High Court heard that one of Markle’s best friends arranged the interviews because she was close to the People editor.
The Mail on Sunday argued that their interviews are central to the case because one of them, known only in public documents as “Friend B”, referred to the existence of Markle’s letter during his interview.
He argued that after the People magazine interviews published last year, “neither the existence nor the content of the Charter was confidential.”
Mail on Sunday editor Associated Newspapers said the names should be made public and argued that Markle cannot fight for his privacy, as he named them “freely” in court documents.
The lawyers for the newspaper said: “They gave flattering material to people about [Markle].
“[She] does not complain about what they did; in fact, it seems to commend him.
“The information they released to People was information about the claimant, but she does not say it is private or information it seeks to protect.”
However, Markle’s legal team argued that his friends “have not waived their right to anonymity, quite the contrary.”
He also insisted that he was not aware of the interviews in advance and would not have tolerated them if he had been aware of them.
The names of the five friends are in the private section of the court documents.
Markle’s legal team argued, “The fact that Plaintiff has named friends in a confidential Program … does not entitle the media to treat their names as publicly reportable.”
Earlier this month, the Mail on Sunday legal team told the Duchess’s attorneys that they considered the friends’ names “adequately reportable by the media.”
A date has not been set for this trial, but if it reaches that stage, Meghan’s father may have to present evidence against his daughter.
The newspaper contends that he was acting in the public interest, as Markle was, at the time, a working member of the royal family who was publicly funded.
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