Meghan Markle has agreed to pay more than $121,000 AUD in legal costs after losing the first round of her suit against The Mail on Sunday’s publisher.
Markle is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article published last February which had shared a deeply personal, handwritten letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle.
Tensions were at an all-time-high with Meghan and her father in the leadup to her wedding to Prince Harry, and she accused ANL of ‘deliberately stirring up’ issues in their relationship. The High Court ruled to strike this claim from the suit, making it solely about an invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.
The Duchess has applied for an order for the identities of the friends who tipped off People magazine about the letter to be kept confidential. It was revealed in court that she believed that revealing their names would be an ‘unacceptable price to pay’ for the sake of the suit.
In an awkward blunder, Markle’s lawyer reportedly let one of the names of the women slip during the statement, however, it was stricken from the record.
In response, Antony White, QC for ANL said, “There is no proper evidential basis [for the application].’ He argues that the information provided to People, which is essential to ANL’s defence, was never claimed to be private.
Despite claims that Meghan was ‘pleased’ with her friends for rushing to her defence when the Royal family did nothing, she insists that she has no idea that they had spoken to People magazine until after the fact.
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