Meghan Markle Issues Statement After She Wins Court Case Over Leaked Letter: 'We All Deserve Better'
Meghan Markle has won her court case after her father, Thomas Markle, leaked a letter she had written after her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
After going back and forth in court, the Duchess, 40, came out on top and issued a statement on Thursday, December 2.
"This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what's right," she began. "While this win is precedent setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create. From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules."
She continued, "The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth. In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation and calculated attacks. Today, the courts ruled in my favor — again — cementing that the Mail on Sunday, owned by Lord Jonathan Rothermere, has broken the law. The courts have held the defendant to account, and my hope is that we all begin to do the same."
The note concluded, "Because as far removed as it may seem from your personal life, it's not. Tomorrow it could be you. These harmful practices don't happen once in a blue moon — they are a daily fail that divide us, and we all deserve better."
In 2019, Thomas leaked the letter his daughter had written to the MailOnline and Mail on Sunday. A few months later, Harry, 37, announced Meghan would be suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which owns those tabloids.
The TV star accused the publications of infringement on her copyright, and she won her case earlier this year.
Lord Justice Warby called the excerpts "manifestly excessive and hence unlawful."
But this year, ANL appealed the ruling and said that Meghan had help writing the letter, therefore, the letters belonged the Crown.
Three Court of Appeal judges — Sir Geoffrey Vos, Dame Victoria Sharp and Lord Justice Bean — upheld Lord Justice Warby's ruling.
"It was hard to see what evidence could have been adduced at trial that would have altered the situation," Vos said. "The judge had been in as good a position as any trial judge to look at the article in People magazine, the letter and the Mail On Sunday articles to decide if publication of the contents of the letter was appropriate to rebut the allegations against Mr. Markle. The judge had correctly decided that, whilst it might have been proportionate to publish a very small part of the letter for that purpose, it was not necessary to publish half the contents of the letter as ANL had done."
