Meghan Markle Has Lost the Latest Round of Her Privacy Lawsuit Over Her Letter to Her Father

By Emily Dixon

Oct 1, 2020

Meghan Markle has suffered a setback in her privacy lawsuit against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday.
A judge ruled that publishers Associated Newspapers Ltd could use Sussex biography Finding Freedom in their defense, with their lawyers arguing that Meghan "co-operated" with the authors.
Meghan's lawyers said claims of her co-operation amounted a "conspiracy theory."

Meghan Markle has suffered a setback in her privacy lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), which publishes the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. Judge Francesca Kaye ruled that ANL could use Sussex biography Finding Freedom in their legal defense, as the Guardian reports, despite Meghan's lawyers' argument that neither she nor Harry played any role in the book's creation.

Meghan is suing ANL for misuse of private information, infringement of copyright, and breaching the Data Protection Act after they published parts of a letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. The publisher requested permission to use Finding Freedom, written by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, in their defense, arguing that Meghan and Harry "co-operated" with the authors and alleging that Meghan gave them information about the letter "in order to set out her own version of events in a way that is favourable to her." Antony White, representing ANL, said Finding Freedom gave "every appearance of having been written with [Harry and Meghan’s] extensive co-operation."

Meghan's lawyers said ANL's claim was a "conspiracy theory," adding that Scobie and Durand referred only to "extracts from the letter" published in the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline. Justin Rushbrooke, representing Meghan, said, "The claimant and her husband did not collaborate with the authors on the book, nor were they interviewed for it, nor did they provide photographs to the authors for the book."

Meghan won the previous round of the ongoing legal battle, as Sky News reports. She appealed to the High Court to prevent the Mail on Sunday from naming the five friends who spoke to People about her in 2019, an appeal the court upheld.