Meghan Markle Legal Battle: Duchess Suffers Three ‘Assaults’ After Tabloids Published Private Letter
Meghan Markle legal battle news: Meghan Markle had reportedly suffered three types of assault when the Associated Newspapers published an edited version of the Duchess of Sussex's handwritten letter to her dad.
The 39-year-old former actress is suing the publisher of Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and the Mail Online for publishing parts of a letter in February 2019 that Meghan sent to her estranged dad, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.
The same year the Daily Mail published the excerpts, the mom-of-one has already threatened to sue them for "under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act for publishing a private letter she sent to her dad."
But it was only in October 2019 when she, along with her husband Prince Harry, officially sued the publication.
The privacy court hearing is taking place today and tomorrow, and according to reports, Meghan Markle's lawyers are applying for a summary judgment. If approved, there wouldn't be a full trial.
Her team are confident in the case and didn't believe that the Associated Newspapers' case would ever win.
The handwritten letter the former "Suits" star wrote was described by her lawyer Justin Rushbrooke QC as "a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father."
The letter was said to have been sent by the former royal to her father's home in Mexico "via a trusted contact to reduce the risk of interception."
The lawyer further explained the some of the contents and characters in the handwritten letter was meant to be "private and personal" and extremely sensitive," which is why the Los Angeles-born businesswoman expected "privacy in respect of the contents of the letter."
As per written submissions to the court, Rushbrooke wrote, "It is as good an example as one could find of a letter that any person of ordinary sensibilities would not want to be disclosed to third parties, let alone in a mass media publication, in a sensational context and to serve the commercial purposes of the newspaper."
Additionally, the Duchess' legal team believes publishing the letter was a direct assault on her "private life, family life, and correspondence."
The argument stated, "Every citizen, whatever their profile or position, has the right under English law to respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence."
They also said that without Meghan Markle's consent or approval of publishing, substantial parts of the letter read by millions of readers worldwide was a clear "invasion of rights of privacy."
