UK royal Meghan's privacy action against tabloid goes to London High Court

By Michael Holden

 

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, leaves after meeting academics and students for a roundtable discussion on female access to higher education with the Association of Commonwealth Universities, at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 1, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The first court hearing in a privacy case brought by Meghan, Britain's Duchess of Sussex, against a tabloid newspaper for printing part of one of her letters takes place at London's High Court on Friday.

 

Meghan, wife of Queen Elizabeth's grandson Prince Harry, is suing publisher Associated Newspapers over articles its Mail on Sunday newspaper printed in February last year which were based on a letter she had sent to her father, Thomas Markle.

 

Lawyers for the duchess say its publication was a misuse of private information and breached her copyright. They are seeking aggravated damages from the paper.

 

Meghan and her father fell out on the eve of her glitzy, pomp-laden wedding to Harry in May 2018.

 

Markle pulled out days beforehand after undergoing heart surgery and following news he had staged photos with a paparazzi photographer, and speculation about his attendance dominated the build-up to the ceremony.

 

Documents from her lawyers this week accused the Mail and other tabloids of harassing, humiliating and manipulating Markle, and contributing towards the fallout between father and daughter.

 

They argue the Mail had also misquoted from the letter, which was never intended to be made public, to paint the royals in a poor light.

 

The Mail says unnamed friends of Meghan had put her version of events in interviews with the U.S. magazine People and that Markle had the right to put his side.

 

The paper's lawyers also argue that given Meghan's royal status, there was legitimate public interest in her personal and family relationships.

 

Friday's hearing, which will be held remotely because of Britain's coronavirus lockdown, is the start of the court action and no witnesses will take part. No date has been set yet for the full trial.

 

In the papers submitted by Meghan's lawyers this week were details of text messages sent by Harry to his future father-in-law, pleading with him not to talk to the press and to call him and his daughter.

 

The duchess missed a call from Markle at 4.57 a.m. on the morning of the wedding and she has not received any calls or messages from him since then, the court papers added.

 

The legal action is the latest step in growing hostility between the media and the couple, who are now living in the Los Angeles area having stepped down from their royal roles at the end of last month.

 

This week the royals announced they would have "zero engagement" with four of Britain's top tabloids, accusing them of false and invasive coverage.

 

That statement brought anger and derision from many newspapers which accused them of egotism and questionable timing by making the announcement during the COVID-19 crisis.

 

(Editing by Stephen Addisonydb)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-24

 

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WGAS?

Ordinary looking bint if you ask me,i would not give her a second glance.

She has no class, a divorcee pushing through her nonsensical egocentric desire for what, and in a time of crisis throughout the world, she will lose whatever sympathy / compassion she had from the public.

Her and Harry stuffed up their relationship with the royal family and now they are going to screw themselves royally with the media.

Riveting news never mind the 20,000 dead we need money????

57 minutes ago, OneeyedJohn said:

She has no class, a divorcee pushing through her nonsensical egocentric desire for what, and in a time of crisis throughout the world, she will lose whatever sympathy / compassion she had from the public.

Her and Harry stuffed up their relationship with the royal family and now they are going to screw themselves royally with the media.

Really? The next king of England will be a divorced man. So hardly the first divorced person in the Royal Family! You have to go back to the 1950s to have that nonsense of not marrying a divorced person imposed on a member of the Royal Family. And look how well that worked out for Princess Margaret!

 

In the case of Harry and Megan, this is the same bunch of tabloid journalists who invaded the privacy of anyone known in the media. In this case, they took advantage of an elderly man (Megan's father) who is, to use the modern term, vulnerable. They persuaded him to reveal the contents of his phone and a letter and then very selectively quoted from them.

 

This case was initiated months before the pandemic. And like many civil cases, they don't just stop because there is a pandemic. If I were she, I would stick to my guns and take whatever she can get from the scum that invaded her privacy. Hopefully this will clip the wings of those invaders of privacy and thieves of personal communication.

 

Remember the fate of Diana, Princess of Wales? Did you ever hear anyone from the tabloids appologising for the hounding of her? It is about time the British brought in a privacy law. Keep the lying scum out of people's personal tragedies!

1 hour ago, OneeyedJohn said:

She has no class, a divorcee pushing through her nonsensical egocentric desire for what, and in a time of crisis throughout the world, she will lose whatever sympathy / compassion she had from the public.

Her and Harry stuffed up their relationship with the royal family and now they are going to screw themselves royally with the media.

Certainly, you have to question her common sense in marrying into the most dysfunctional and corrupt family of benefit scroungers in the UK. 

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by RuamRudy

She now keeps very quiet about being an ambassador for World Vision,

He is a illegitimate son of Diana,fathered by Capt Hewwit,with whom she had an affair ,in days gone by he would have been taken to the tower and never heard of again,so his Royal status is spurious at best.She is a slapper on the make. Having said that don't think he is a bad chap,fought for his country,and supports a lot of good causes,still young,but has made an awful mistake with this bint.