Meghan Markle won the next round of her lawsuit against the Associated Newspapers Wednesday after a judge ruled in favor of her request. The Duchess of Sussex asked the court, in July, to keep the identities of her five friends confidential as the tabloid allegedly planned to publish their names.
Justice Warby, reportedly, granted Meghan Markle's request "for the time being." The names of her friends appear in court documents as coded identities but the Duchess of Sussex's lawyers, reportedly, informed the judge of their real identities.
They are witnesses to the breach of privacy and copyright lawsuit against Associated Newspapers' Mail on Sunday, which published the duchess' private letters to her father, Thomas Markle, in 2018. However, the tabloid argued that the five friends were the first to speak anonymously about the existence of the letter in a People interview to defend Meghan from the negative press.
Her father decided to give the letter to Mail on Sunday to defend himself from the friends' interview. Meghan's lawyers said that she was not aware of her friends' plan to speak to the magazine.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Sussex's lawyers also told the High Court that her friends are private citizens and must be accorded the basic right to privacy. Associated Newspapers' lawyers, on the other hand, said that the public has the right to know these names and cited the prohibition as a curtailment of media rights.
The judge said that it's in the interest of the court to limit the "frenzy of publicity" in a litigation; thus, he's keeping the names confidential. Warby also took note of the fact that both Meghan and the tabloid "play out the merits of their dispute in public."
However, Warby also stressed that his ruling could change during the progress of the case. The lawsuit is set to go on full trial by the end of the year or in early 2021.
A source close to Meghan told People that the Duchess of Sussex is happy with the judge's call, even if it's only temporary. Meghan, apparently, needed to take the step to protect her friends because they would do the same for her.
According to an analysis from a London lawyer, the ruling is significant because it could establish that Meghan arranged an attack on her father. This will, then, support why he had to respond to the attack by giving his daughter's letter to the press.
