Meghan Markle was aware that her letter to her father, Thomas Markle, was going to be read by the public and instead of expecting privacy for it, she was allegedly anticipating that it will get out to the press.
The lawyer for Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the tabloid involved in the lawsuit filed by the Duchess of Sussex for infringing on her privacy, made such claims during an argument at London's High Court on Wednesday. Anthony White said that Meghan knew beforehand that the contents of her letter will be "disclosed to third parties" because she consulted with four ex-workers of Kensington Palace's communications team before sending this to her father.
Christian Jones, Jason Knauf, Sara Latham and Samantha Cohen may be able to tell the High Court if Meghan did expect her letter to be leaked to the press or to Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors of Finding Freedom, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's unofficial biography. The defense has claimed that this was, in fact, a media strategy for Meghan, who got some help crafting the letter from the royal staff members.
In November, the lawyer of Associated Newspapers also told the court that Meghan agreed to one person, who was approached by the authors, to divulge the contents of her letter. But sources said that her intention was to avoid any misrepresentation or to be viewed by her father as an uncaring daughter. The Duchess of Sussex was not aware of how much of her letter to Thomas was communicated to Scobie or Durand.
But these points support the defense's arguments that the British tabloid did not violate Meghan's privacy since she knew the public will get to read it. It comes after Meghan's lawyers presented their arguments on Tuesday, citing that Associated Newspapers and its news outlet applied a "triple-barrelled invasion of her privacy rights."
In August 2018, Meghan sent Thomas, who has been based in Mexico, a five-page letter after months of conflict and following her royal wedding to Prince Harry. Thomas wasn't able to walk his daughter down the aisle as he claimed to have suffered a heart attack days before the big event. He also figured in a controversy over hiring the paparazzi to follow him just before he was supposed to fly to London.
Parts of this letter were dissected and printed by Mail on Sunday to allegedly paint Meghan in a bad light. As a result, the Duchess of Sussex filed a lawsuit for misuse of private information, breach of the Data Protection Act and copyright infringement.
Meghan's lawyers have been asking for a summary judgment on the case as they believe that Associated Newspapers doesn't have a chance of winning. The defense, however, said that the summary judgement is "wholly unsuitable" for this case.
