LONDON , — The Duchess Of Sussex has apologized to a British court for misleading them about the extent of her cooperation in a sympathetic book that was written about Prince Harry and her.
Former Meghan Markle, 40 is currently in London court proceedings over the publication by a British newspaper of parts of a letter she sent to her father following her 2018 marriage. Harry is a grandson to Queen Elizabeth II.
She sued MailOnline and the publisher of Sunday’s Mail for copyright and privacy breaches. In February, a High Court judge ruled in her favour, stating that publication of Meghan’s letter to Thomas Markle was “manifestly exaggerated and therefore unlawful.”
The Court of Appeal has overturned the decision of Publisher Associated Newspapers. According to the publisher, Meghan knew that it would be published and shared private information with Omid Scobie (authors of Finding Freedom).
Lawyers for the duchess have denied previously that Harry or she collaborated with the writers. Jason Knauf, the former communications director of the couple, testified in court that he provided information to the writers and discussed it with Harry.
Knauf stated in a witness statement that the book was discussed with the duchess “many times in person” and “over email”. Emails included in Knauf’s testimony show that he also emailed Harry discussing the book and to confirm that he would be meeting the authors.
Knauf replied that Harry said: “I completely agree that we need to be able say we didn’t have anything to contribute to it.” You could also give some context and background to help them get some truths out.
Meghan admitted in a Wednesday witness statement that Mr. Knauf had provided some information to the authors of the book. He did this with my knowledge for a meeting that was planned with the authors in his capacity of communications secretary. She also said that the extent of the information that he shared with me is not known.
The duchess claimed that she didn’t recall the conversations with Knauf during earlier evidence in the case. “And I apologize to court for not remembering these exchanges at that time.”
She stated that she had no intention or desire to mislead either the defendant or the court.
Associated Newspapers claims that Knauf’s evidence also weakens Meghan’s claim she didn’t intend for the letter to be seen except by her father.
Knauf stated that the duchess asked him to review the letter’s text, and that he said, “obviously all I have written is with the understanding it could be leak.”
Knauf stated that Meghan asked if she should address her father as “Daddy” in the letter, adding that “in case it leaked it would pull at your heartstrings.”
Meghan wrote that she did not believe her father would sell or leak the letter. This was primarily because it would not portray him in a positive light.
She stated, “To be clear: I didn’t want any of this to be published and wanted to minimize the risk of it becoming misleadingly edited or manipulated, if it was to be exploited.”
The Court of Appeal heard Thursday from Meghan’s lawyers that she could have the letter to her father made public by using the “Finding Freedom book”.
Andrew Caldecott, a lawyer representing the newspaper, argued that Thomas Markle was entitled to publicly refute misleading claims about Meghan’s relationship that were made in a People magazine interview. He also claimed that Thomas Markle could publicly dispute the false statements.
He said, “Thomas Markle was royally attacked by People magazine… and here is his reply.”
Three senior judges will continue to hear the appeal on Thursday. A decision is expected to be made at a later time.
Meghan, an actress on the American TV drama “Suits,” got married to Harry at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
In early 2020, the couple declared that they would be moving to North America and quitting their royal duties. They cited the inhumane intrusions and racist attitudes of British media.
They settled down in Santa Barbara, California with their two young kids.
