Meghan Markle to argue 'quintessentially private letter' breached her rights as High Court hearing begins
The Duchess of Sussex will today argue that the “quintessentially private letter” she sent to her father was a “heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter” published only for commercial gain and that any argument to the contrary was “utterly fanciful”.
She has accused the Mail on Sunday of a “plain and serious invasion of her rights of privacy” by reproducing extracts of the letter in a “sensational context”.
The Duchess, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers, the owner of The Mail on Sunday, for breach of privacy and copyright.
Her claim concerns the publication of five articles, three in the MailOnline and two in the Mail on Sunday, in February 2019.
At a two-day summary judgment hearing, being heard at the High Court remotely, the Duchess’s lawyers will argue there is “no real prospect” of the newspaper winning the case and that it can therefore be resolved without a trial.
Such an application can be brought when one party believes it has such an overwhelmingly strong case that the judge does not need to hear witness evidence.
In court documents, the Duchess said the letter she sent to Thomas Markle in August 2018 was a desperate plea, begging him to stop talking to the press.
“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,” she says.
“The act of writing a personal letter to a close family member, lover or friend inevitably puts the writer in an unguarded and potentially vulnerable position because the words chosen and the way in which the writer chooses to express him or herself are for the recipient and no one else.”
The Duchess argues that the Mail on Sunday knew the letter was private, describing its shift from that position as “cynical and unattractive.”
She says everyone, regardless of their profile or position, has the right to “respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence.”
Her skeleton argument argues that the decision to publish extracts of the letter, without her consent or knowledge, breached her privacy.
If the Duchess’s application fails, a full trial will go ahead in the autumn, with the Duchess likely to face her own father, Mr Markle, 76, across the courtroom in a Markle vs Markle clash.
Royal aides will almost certainly be called to testify, including several who worked for the Sussexes.
The trial was originally scheduled for this month but the Duchess won a postponement on confidential grounds, despite her father voicing fears that he "could die tomorrow".
