Duchess of Sussex wins High court case against The Mail on Sunday

The Duchess of Sussex has won her High Court case against The Mail on Sunday. A judge ruled the newspaper had breached Meghan Markle’s privacy by publishing extracts from a letter she had sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

Mr Justice Warby last week issued a ‘summary judgment’ that handed victory to the Duchess without the need for a trial in which she would have been called to give evidence, and her father to give evidence against her.

The judge ruled: ‘It was, in short, a personal and private letter’ containing ‘inherently private and personal matters’ that Meghan, 39, had ‘a reasonable expectation’ would remain private.

The newspaper argued that Mr Markle, 76, asked it to publish extracts from the 2018 letter, to set the record straight.

The newspaper noted that Meghan is a senior member of the Royal Family and raised questions about whether she had authorised previous publicity of the letter.

Mr Markle spoke out because his daughter’s close friends had revealed its existence in an anonymous interview they had granted US magazine People in which they had mischaracterised it as a ‘loving’ letter.

But Mr Markle disagreed, saying he saw the letter not as an ‘olive branch’ but as an admonishment that ‘signalled the end of our relationship’.

Mr Justice Warby last week issued a ‘summary judgment’ that handed victory to the Duchess without the need for a trial in which she would have been called to give evidence

He told the court in a statement that he was determined to fly to London to give evidence against his daughter.

But Meghan’s lawyers successfully argued that a trial was unnecessary because the newspaper had ‘no prospect’ of mounting a successful defence.

The judge also ruled that publication of the extracts was a breach of copyright, although he said the question of who owned the copyright must go to trial.

The Mail on Sunday is considering whether to appeal.