Meghan Markle’s Former Aide Gives Witness Statement Against Her in Major Court Appeal

The stakes have been raised in a major court appeal as Meghan Markle's former aide, who accused her of bullying, has given a witness statement against her to a UK tabloid.

The Duchess of Sussex sued the Mail on Sunday for breaching her privacy and copyright by printing a letter she sent her father Thomas Markle begging him to stop talking to the media.

She won an emphatic victory in February and told the world of the newspaper's illegal and dehumanising practices in a triumphant statement.

Initially, the tabloid argued that Meghan intended the letter to become public, viewing it as part of a media strategy at a time when Royal Protocol stopped her speaking publicly.

However, since lodging an appeal, the publisher has changed tack and now says she wrote it knowing it had the potential to become public.

The Mail on Sunday has asked the Court of Appeal in London to admit as supporting evidence a witness statement from her former communications secretary, Jason Knauf.

The Texas-born former staffer wrote a now-famous email in October 2018 accusing Meghan of bullying two PAs out of Kensington Palace and expressing concern for a third staff member.

The emotional stakes were already high since a victory for the tabloid would mean a trial in which Meghan would be expected to testify and hand over private documents.

Her own lawyers have said it would involve further violations of her privacy in their filing to the court.

However, Knauf's intervention adds an extra layer as it cuts to an issue that Prince Harry has previously said left Meghan prying into her pillow.

The ex-aide's 2018 email was leaked to UK newspaper The Times and published just days before the couple's bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview, in which the Duchess accused the palace of leaking false stories about her to the media.

The Mail on Sunday's lawyers said that Knauf's evidence will contradict Meghan's if the judges allow it to be admitted.

Mr Knauf also alleges that Meghan cooperated with the authors of Finding Freedom, which she also previously denied in the High Court case.

According to the Court of Appeal hearing yesterday, Meghan Markle's claims that a letter she sent to Thomas Markle was private and for her father's eyes only have been proved false by texts she sent to a royal aide that reveal the former Suits star wrote it with public consumption in mind.

Andrew Caldercott QC, for ANL, told judges that the new evidence from Mr Knauf in the form of texts raises questions about Meghan's credibility.

He argued the letter was written with public consumption in mind as a possibility.

Far from being an intimate communication for her father's eyes only, Meghan wrote the letter knowing Thomas Markle might disclose it to the media, he said, adding, the fundamental point turns out to be false on the new evidence.

The letter was crafted specifically with the potential of public consumption in mind.

ANL also believes that Thomas Markle had the right to reveal the contents of the letter to correct some inaccuracies contained in an article in People magazine, published days before ANL's five articles, which featured an interview with five friends of Meghan who spoke in detail about the same note.

Mr Caldercott QC has said that ANL's defence to the Duchess of Sussex's privacy claim should have gone to a trial.

He told the Court of Appeal that Meghan's claim was diminished and outweighed by her father's right to reply following false or misleading allegations published in People magazine in the US.

He said, the claimant's letter and the People article both make allegations against Mr Markle of cruelly cold-shouldering the claimant in the pre-wedding period.

The article, or its gist, was reported worldwide.

The barrister added, we say there was a difference between what Mr Markle said and what he was presented as saying.

He concluded, the defendant submits it as a strongly arguable case that by the time of the publication of the articles, the claimant no longer had a reasonable expectation of privacy of the text of the letter.

In conclusion, Meghan Markle's former aide has given a witness statement against her to a UK tabloid, raising the stakes in a major court appeal.