Meghan Markle took legal action against the British news publication, the Mail, in hopes of defeating them. Recently, however, the Duchess of Sussex learned that she lost the first round of her High Court case against the publication. As a result, Markle has agreed to pay about $75,000 in legal costs.
Markle plans to take legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which is the company that owns the Daily Mail and MailOnline. She is outraged by an article published in February 2019, where the publisher shared a handwritten letter she had written privately to her estranged father.
Even though the public thought that Markle had a case against the publisher, High Court’s Mr. Justice Warby ruled some of her claims invalid- including the paper’s claim of “deliberately stirring up” drama and issues between Markle and her father.
On the other hand, tabloid sources discovered a written submission from Duchess Meghan on July 22nd. In this document, she stated that she is willing to pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to the publisher. Consequently, this will enable the company to have money to defend itself against her lawsuit.
According to Meghan, she would not want to give People magazine the names of her pals who talked about the letter she sent to her father, Thomas. It would be an “unbearable cost” for them to do so because they are all “young parents,” and she does not want their lives disrupted by media exposure. Pursuing her libel action against the newspaper would not be worth jeopardizing her friendships.
Just recently, Meghan’s legal team declared in court: “To disclose their identities to the public at this stage is an unacceptable price to pay for the right to pursue her claim for invasion of privacy.”
Although Markle hired QC Justin Rushbrooke to keep her friend’s identity confidential, he accidentally revealed the name in court.
Mr. Justice Warby ruled that the individual’s name should not be made public, which was directed regardless of Rushbrooke’s mistake.
In the midst of all the drama, Markle is suing the newspaper for their violation of her privacy and copyright with regards to an article in People magazine.
Antony White, QC for Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, spoke to the court and demanded that Markle’s friends be named.
He stated: “There is no proper evidential basis (for the application). There is no evidence at all from four of the five friends, and the evidence from the fifth (Friend B) has been shown to be unsatisfactory.”
The lawyer continued, “There is no risk of reprisal in this case.’ The barrister added: ‘The information they disclosed to People was information about the claimant, but is not said by her to be private or information that she seeks to protect.”
What do you think about her not revealing the names of her friends? Is it better for them to stay out of the public eye?
