Meghan Markle wins privacy case against the Mail on Sunday, Awarded £450,000

Meghan Markle won a high-profile suit for invasion of privacy on Thursday after details from a 2018 letter she sent to her estranged father were released in a British newspaper.

The Duchess of Sussex, who is married to Queen Elizabeth II's grandson Prince Harry, “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private,” according to a judge at the High Court in London.

Judge Mark Warby ruled that the papers in the Mail on Sunday weekly paper “interfered with that reasonable expectation” and were thus unconstitutional.

“It was, in short, a personal and private letter. The majority of what was published was about the claimant's own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father's behaviour – as she saw it – and the resulting rift between them. These are inherently private and personal matters.“ The claimant had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private.”

False suggestion

“We are very surprised by today's summary judgment and disappointed at being denied the chance to have all the evidence heard and tested in open court at a full trial,” an Associated Newspapers spokeswoman said. “We are carefully considering the judgment's contents and will decide in due course whether to lodge an appeal .”

The only tenable justification for release, according to the judge, would be to fix any inaccuracies regarding the letter in a report in People magazine that included an interview with the duchess' friends.

He said it was lawful for Ms Markle and the defendant to use a section of the letter to counter a false allegation in the People article that the letter was a “olive branch” from the duchess to her father. However, he said, it was a “inescapable conclusion” that revealing the remainder of the details in the letter was neither “necessary nor proportionate.”

“Taken as a whole, the disclosures were manifestly excessive and hence unlawful,” he added.

In the Mail on Sunday privacy event, Meghan was awarded a £450k provisional payout.

In her privacy lawsuit toward the Mail on Sunday, the Duchess of Sussex has been awarded an interim £450,000 downpayment against her £1.5 million litigation bills.

The payout follows her win last month against Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over excerpts from a private handwritten letter she submitted to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, that were reported in the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online.

Meghan had demanded a £750k interim payout. She still requires a front-page apology and a high court order requiring the newspaper to hand over all copies of the letter it has made, as well as to delete any copies or comments produced about it.

Meghan, 39, lodged a complaint against ANL in February 2019 regarding five articles. In regards to her privacy argument and a portion of her copyright claim, she was awarded summary judgement.

Lord Justice Warby denied ANL's request to challenge his decision. The publishers have the power to appeal directly to the court of appeals for approval.