Meghan Markle wins her case against British tabloid over a letter she wrote to her father

On May 5, 2021, a British court upheld Meghan Markle's copyright claim against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over its publication from a private letter she wrote to her estranged father. The High Court Judge issued a summary judgment in favour of Meghan regarding an outstanding issue of who owns the copyright to the letter. Read ahead to know more.

Meghan Markle wins her case against British Tabloid 

According to E! Online, The London High Court Judge, Mark Warby issued a summary of the five-page handwritten letter that was published by The Mail on Sunday in February 2019. The tabloid published parts of it and the letter was provided by Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle. She wrote the letter in August 2018, two months after her wedding to Prince Harry which her father could not attend due to illness. Her father told The Sun, which was not part of the lawsuit, that the last he spoke to Meghan was on a phone call just after the nuptials.

In 2019, Meghan sued the newspaper's publisher over the publication of letter excerpts for misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act of 2018. The High Court Judge issued a judgment in favour saying that Meghan “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the Letter would remain private.”

In March, the court ordered Associated Newspapers Limited to pay Meghan 90% of her estimated legal expenses. She received $625,000 as an interim payment. In the current judgement, Mark Warby ordered ANL to pay the remaining 10%. He also ordered the tabloid to print a front-page statement accepting her victory.

The judge also listed that her copyright claim needed further scrutiny because the newspaper group suggested that Meghan did not fully own the copyright of the letter. The members of the royal communications team helped her draft it. However, nobody has claimed ownership of Meghan Markle's letter yet. At the hearing, Meghan's attorney said "In our client's view, it was the duchess's letter alone," Sky News reported.

(IMAGE: SUSSEX ROYAL'S INSTAGRAM)