Meghan Markle felt ‘unprotected by the royal institution’

Meghan Markle felt ‘unprotected’ by the Royal ‘institution’ because it could not defend her against stories in the press that angered her but were true, sources have claimed.

In papers filed in the High Court this week, Meghan’s lawyers said press coverage of her while she was pregnant damaged her mental health.

The documents also say she was ‘unprotected by the institution and prohibited from defending herself’.

A source confirmed to The Times that this referred to the team of press officers and wider office staff at the Palace. 

Officials will often refuse to comment to journalists when an on-the-record reply would confirm a story or damage the royal family member involved.

 Meghan Markle is suing Associated Newspapers Limited over an article in The Mail On Sunday which reproduced parts of a handwritten note she had sent to her father Thomas Markle (pictured together) in August 2018

That paper reported one case that had angered the Duchess involved the resignation of her PA Melissa Toubati, who quit in 2018 amid rumours she had been reduced to tears by Meghan’s demands.

The Kensington Palace press team had difficulty in denying the stories, because they were true, The Times said.

‘The stories were a drop in the ocean compared to what was going on,’ another source said.

But Meghan’s legal papers say she ‘become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles’ in UK newspapers, which caused ‘tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health’.

They add: ‘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 defending herself.’

The claims raise the prospect that staff from the Royal Household could be called to give evidence in the High Court, laying bare the inner workings of Kensington Palace.

Meghan is suing MailOnline’s owner Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article in The Mail On Sunday that shared parts of a handwritten note she had sent to her father Thomas Markle in August 2018. She claims publication was a breach of her privacy; the newspaper denies the claim.

Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex are seen with their son Archie in September last year

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex depart Canada House on January 7

ANL has said Mr Markle shared the letter only after Meghan’s friends – who could be called to give evidence at a possible trial in late 2020 or early 2021 – gave an interview about it to the US magazine People, which he felt vilified him, and he wanted to show it was not the tender message they had suggested.

New legal documents showed that Meghan has now identified the five friends – who spoke anonymously – with the papers just referring to them as A, B, C, D and E, although she named them in a confidential section.

The friends have never been named, with People magazine previously referring to them as ‘Meghan’s inner circle – a longtime friend, a former co-star, a friend from LA, a one-time colleague and a close confidante’.

The five close friends could be called to testify at a trial and be asked if Meghan knew they were speaking to the magazine, something she firmly denies in the documents, which are a response to questions raised by ANL.

Prince Harry and Meghan following their wedding in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in Berkshire on May 19, 2018

Her lawyers add in the new court filing that Meghan ‘discussed with Friend A that she was writing a letter to her father at the time of penning it’, which was seven months before the article was published in People in February 2019. 

The submissions added that the Duchess and Friend A talked about the existence of the letter, but not its contents, again in September and December 2018, as Mr Markle ‘continued to give interviews to UK media falsely claiming he had not heard from his daughter’. 

Meghan added that she ‘did not know about the interview having been given, and only found out about it, and any reference to the Letter, after the People magazine article was published’.

The Duchess also said that she found out that an article about her was due to appear just before it was published, but she did not know it would be in People or anything about its contents. 

Any court trial is expected to focus on whether Meghan had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter to her father, given that her friends had already briefed People magazine about its contents, and whether publishing parts of the letter was in the public interest and allowed under freedom of expression laws.

Meghan’s legal team said that ‘Friend A’ spoke anonymously to People and made a ‘passing reference to the letter’, adding that the Duchess did not know Friend A gave the interview because she was not involved with it.

Her lawyers add in the new court filing that Meghan ‘discussed with Friend A that she was writing a letter to her father at the time of penning it’, which was seven months before the article was published in People in February 2019.

The submissions added that the Duchess and Friend A talked about the existence of the letter, but not its contents, again in September and December 2018, as Mr Markle ‘continued to give interviews to UK media falsely claiming he had not heard from his daughter’.

Meghan added that she ‘did not know about the interview having been given, and only found out about it, and any reference to the Letter, after the People magazine article was published’.

The Duchess also said that she found out that an article about her was due to appear just before it was published, but she did not know it would be in People or anything about its contents.