New Court documents from Meghan Markle’s ongoing lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday for writing “false and damaging” articles about her reveal that the Duchess of Sussex felt “unprotected” and that she and her friends felt “silenced.”
What We Know:
- New court documents from the lawsuit reveal that the Duchess of Sussex felt “unprotected” by the Royal Family and that, according to her lawyers, the Royal Family’s penchant for standard practices left Meghan and her friends “feeling silenced.”
- “(Meghan Markle) had become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles by the U.K. tabloid media, specifically by the (Mail on Sunday), which caused tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health,” the documents read. “As her friends had never seen her in this state before, they were rightly concerned for her welfare specifically as she was pregnant, unprotected by the Institution and prohibited from defended herself.”
- Markle’s friends went to People to defend her actions, despite the Kensington Palace ordering those close to the Duchess give “no comment” when approached by the press, and Markle’s lawyers believe this is what drove her friends to do what they did. There have been rumors that Markle knew of her friends’ actions, and her representatives set the record straight that she was unaware of her friends’ actions and not involved.
- “Had the Claimant been asked or been given the opportunity to participate, she would have asked the K.P. Communications Team to say on the record that she had not been involved with the People magazine article, as she had not been.”
- The Duchess of Sussex went through a lot of stress dealing with her lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday after the U.K. newspaper got a hold of her five-page letter to her father, Thomas Markle, in 2018, and published the (allegedly) edited letter to make Markle look bad.
- On Feb. 23, 2019, Markle threatened to sue the newspaper for publishing the private letter addressed to her father and followed up on her threat on Oct. 1, 2019. Harry filed a separate lawsuit for News Group Newspapers company, publishers of The Sun, the Daily Mirror, and the News of the World, on Oct. 4, 2019.
- Unfortunately, the judge agreed with Associated Newspapers (now known as DMG Media and owner of The Mail on Sunday) on May 1, striking out Meghan’s claim that they “acted dishonestly and in bad faith,” “deliberately dug up or stirred up conflict between Meghan and her father,” and had an “obvious agenda of publishing intrusive or offensive stories about (her) intended to portray her in a false and damaging light.”
The couple is privately funding this legal case, and, pending a court ruling, proceeds from any damages will be donated to an anti-bullying charity.
