Meghan Markle didn't completely write the letter she sent her father before she got married to Prince Harry in 2018. Kensington Palace staff members apparently confirmed in London's High Court that the Duchess of Sussex received some help from the communications office in writing her messages to Thomas Markle.
Lawyers of the Daily Mail, the defendant in Meghan's lawsuit, stated that her letter to Thomas was not her "own intellectual creation." They pointed out that the former Communications Secretary of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the High Court that members of the Kensington Palace communication team contributed to drafting the letter.
Prince Harry's wife is suing the news outlet and its owner, the Associated Newspapers, for data privacy breach and copyright infringement following the publication of the said letter. Daily Mail's Sunday section extracted its content in five articles published on its website in February 2019.
The defendant's lawyers are now challenging Meghan to "prove" that she is the lone person who wrote the letter. They also alleged that it was the Duchess of Sussex herself who "leaked" the letter's content first through her friends' anonymous interview with People magazine. The friends said that Meghan wanted to heal her fractured relationship with Thomas but the defendant's lawyers noted that the letter sounded like the duchess was reprimanding her father.
Meghan's lawsuit against Associated Newspapers has been delayed for almost a year after a London judge granted her request. Prince Harry's wife was supposed to be facing her father in court by Jan. 11, 2021, but she won the bid to push back the trial's date to September 2021. The judge said the court cannot divulge the reason for the duchess' request since it is confidential.
The move has irked Meghan's father because he apparently wants to get the trial over with. Thomas is taking the stand for the defendants. The father said, following the trial's delay, that he "could die tomorrow" and that his daughter's lawsuit is giving him anxiety. Thomas was ready to go to trial in January because he wanted to get his day in court and prove that her daughter's allegations are wrong.
Thomas said that he would not have given the letter to the Daily Mail if Meghan's friends did not speak to People about it. The father said he needed to defend himself after being vilified by his daughter's friends.
Meanwhile, Meghan's lawyers said that she prepared the letter on the Notes application of her iPhone for weeks before transferring this as a handwritten note. The Duchess of Sussex also denied that she had knowledge that her friends were going to speak with People.
