Meghan Markle suffers another setback in her lawsuit against the tabloid, Daily Mail. The Duchess of Sussex lost the third round of the pre-trial, which took place virtually Tuesday, Sept. 28.

According to Deadline, Judge Francesca Kaye ruled in favor of Associated Newspapers, the owner of Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, which asked the courts to include the contents of the book, Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Family, as evidence. This will allow the defense to amend their argument, to include the biography, in time for the actual trial in 2021. 

In seeking the court's permission, lawyers of the defense argued that the Duchess of Sussex collaborated with the authors of Finding Freedom to control the narrative on her royal exit with Prince Harry.  They said that if Meghan worked with the biography's authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, then this would undermine her claim that Associated Newspapers violated her privacy. 

Meghan's lawyers, however, outlined a list of inaccuracies in Finding Freedom to indicate that Meghan did not work with Scobie and Durand in writing the story. Before the book was released, Prince Harry and Meghan also released a statement distancing themselves from the authors.

The Duchess of Sussex filed the lawsuit against the Associated Newspapers in 2019 after the tabloid published parts of Meghan's letter to her father, Thomas Markle. She lost the first round of pre-trial in May when Judge Mark Warby threw out some of her arguments stating that Associated Newspapers had dishonest intentions to publish her father's letters. Warby also threw out her claims that the newspaper was the reason she's now estranged from her father. 

But Meghan won the second round of the pre-trial in August after the courts sided with her request not to allow Daily Mail to publicly name the five friends who spoke on her behalf in a People Magazine interview. The judge said that her friends will remain confidential "for the time being" but their identities are known to the courts.

Meghan might be required to appear in the courtroom when the trial starts. Sources said that she might face her father in court as well, after not seeing and communicating with him for more than two years. Scobie and Durand might also be asked to be in the courtroom once the proceeding starts to shed light on their work on Finding Freedom

Despite the setback, people close to the Duchess of Sussex told Vanity Fair that she is determined to weather through this legal battle until the end. Meghan is aware of the legal cost before she pursued the case but she believes that a line needs to be drawn against her fight with the tabloids.