LONDON (UK) – Duchess of Sussex Meghan will find on Thursday if she has won her privacy fight against a British tabloid without the case going to a trial, which will be embarrassing as it could reveal her antagonism against her father.
The 39-year-old wife of Prince Harry is suing Associated Newspapers after its Mail on Sunday tabloid carried excerpts of the letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.
Meghan said the articles violated her privacy and copyright and last month her lawyers asked London High Court judge Mark Warby to rule in her favour without proceeding to a trial later this year.
She wrote the five-page missive to her father after their relationship soured before her wedding to the grandson of Queen Elizabeth in May 2018. Her father could not attend the wedding due to ill health.
The newspaper carried extracts in February 2019 and it argued that it published the letter so as to allow Markle to respond to comments made by her friends in interviews with People magazine of the US.
Her lawyers said printing the “personal and sensitive” letter was a “triple-barrelled” assault on “her private life, her family life and her correspondence” and violated her privacy.
The newspaper argued that Meghan always wanted the contents of the letter to become public and it was part of a media strategy. It also pointed out she had admitted in court papers discussing it with her communications secretary.
In case the judge rules against Meghan, it sales the prospect of the duchess, former senior aides and Thomas giving evidence in court.
“It was only by publishing the text of the letter that I could properly set the record straight and show that what People magazine had published was false and unfair,” Markle said in a witness statement in support of the Mail.