Meghan Markle suffers major setback as court dismisses claim that newspaper 'stirred up' dispute with her father
A London High Court judge has dismissed claims made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that the Associated Newspapers Ltd "stirred up" dispute between the Duchess of Sussex and her estranged father Thomas Markle by publishing a letter she had written to him in 2018.
Following an application filed by Associated Newspapers -- publisher of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline -- Meghan's claims that the reports were part of a media "agenda" against her and that journalists had caused the rift with her father were struck out. The court also dismissed allegations that the paper acted "dishonestly" by leaving out certain passages of the letter in its reports.
The dismissal was part of legal action against Associated Newspapers,launched by Harry and Meghan after the couple alleged that the media firm had misused private information and indulged in copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act by publishing a "private and confidential" handwritten letter from Meghan to her dad.
With these provisions struck out, the case will now centre on whether Meghan had a reasonable expectation of privacy over the letter.
Justice Warby said the ruled out parts parts can be revived at a later date, provided they are put on a proper legal basis.
"Some of the allegations are struck out as irrelevant to the purpose for which they are pleaded. Some are struck out on the further or alternative ground that they are inadequately detailed. I have also acted so as to confine the case to what is reasonably necessary and proportionate for the purpose of doing justice between these parties," the judge said in a statement, the Sun reported.
The statement continued: "I do not consider that the allegations struck out on that basis go to the 'heart' of the case, which at its core concerns the publication of five articles disclosing the words of, and information drawn from, the letter written by the claimant to her father in August 2018. Some aspects of the case that I have struck out at this stage may be revived if they are put in proper form."
In their application last week, the Associated Newspapers said that they had published parts of the letter - over five articles, two in the Mail on Sunday and three on MailOnline, all of them in February 2019 - in order to satisfy the "curiosity" of readers. It also admitted that it had "deliberately generated" the said curiosity.
David Sherborne, representing the duchess, had previously accused the newspaper of "harassing, humiliating, manipulating and exploiting" Thomas and causing "the very dispute" between Meghan and her dad that the newspaper previously claimed justified "the publication of this letter".
The lawyer added that the publisher "deliberately misled the public by presenting a false picture of the letter".
Sherborne's claims were challenged by Antony White, who represented the Associated Newspapers. In his argument, he said that Meghan had not spoken directly to her father in two years and hence her claim that her "vulnerable" father was "harassed and humiliated", "manipulated" and "exploited" should not form part of her case.
The newspaper has said that they will be asking the Duke and Duchess to pay their legal costs - which is a little over £50,000 ($62,600) - after the couple rejected their offer to settle the lawsuit out of court due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The former royal pair, on the other hand, will be seeking damages from the newspaper if they win the case. Meghan said that any damages they are awarded in the case will be donated to an anti-bullying charity.