Meghan Markle Wins Another Round In Lawsuit Against Mail On Sunday Publisher

Meghan Markle has scored another win in her ongoing legal challenge with the publisher of the U.K. newspaper The Mail on Sunday regarding its unauthorized publication of a letter that she sent to her father.

What Happened: Markle sued the MoS parent company Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ANL) over its publication of five articles featuring excerpts from what she described as a “personal and private” letter she wrote to her estranged father Thomas Markle in August 2018, three months after her wedding to Prince Harry that resulted in her royal designation as Duchess of Sussex.

Earlier this year, a high court judge issued a summary judgment in Markle’s favor without conducting a trial, citing Markle’s claims that the publisher was responsible for copyright infringement and breach of privacy. But ANL appealed on the grounds the case deserved to go to trial, adding that Markle was aware the letter could be leaked before she sent it to her father.

However, the Court of Appeals ruled against ANL, noting that “the judge’s decision that the Duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter. Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”

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What Happened Next: Markle issued a statement following the appeals court ruling, calling it “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right. While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create.”

ANL announced it was considering an appeal to the U.K.’s Supreme Court. The company issued a statement insisting that “judgment should be given only on the basis of evidence treated at trial [in] a heavily contested case, before even disclosure of documents.”

Photo: Meghan Markle with her husband, Prince Harry. Photo by Mark Jones / Wikimedia Commons