Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, scored a huge victory in court on Thursday in her long-running privacy battle against the publisher Associated Newspapers. The lawsuit is about the publication of parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father that she had intended to be private.
One person who was not happy about Meghan’s legal victory was her old nemesis Piers Morgan.
A responsive statement from Piers, The Earl of Exposing Princess Pinocchio Bullsh*t, will be published shortly. pic.twitter.com/biTPSirxvY
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 2, 2021
Meghan’s Win In Court
Fox News reported that the Court of Appeal in London ruled in Meghan’s favor when it upheld a High Court ruling that came in February stating that publishing the letter was unlawful and breached her privacy.
This ruling was challenged last month in a hearing by the publisher of the ‘Mail on Sunday’ and the MailOnline website. However, senior judge Geoffrey Vos dismissed this appeal on Thursday morning, saying that “the Duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter. Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”
Meghan did a victory lap by releasing a statement saying that this ruling is “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right.”
“While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create,” she continued.
Related: Meghan Markle Reportedly Wants Her ‘Own Talk Show’ – Feels ‘Rejuvenated’ After Appearing On ‘Ellen’
Associated Newspapers Fought Meghan In Court
Associated Newspapers had argued that Meghan didn’t intend the letter to stay between her and her estranged father Thomas. It cited communications between her and her then-communications secretary Jason Knauf showing that she knew her father might leak the letter to the media, and that she wrote it with that in mind.
The publisher also argued that Thomas Markle had the right to have the letter published in response to a “People Magazine” article in which five of Meghan’s friend accused him of “cruelly cold-shouldering” his daughter before her 2018 royal wedding.
However, the judge found that the article was “splashed as a new public revelation,” not as a response from Thomas to the negative media attention that he was being hit with.
Related: Meghan Markle Uses Her Royal Title To Lobby Republican Senators By Cold Calling Them
Find out more about Meghan’s legal win in the video below.
Meghan Blasts Associated Newspapers
In her victory statement, Meghan blasted Associated Newspapers for treating the lawsuit as “a game with no rules.” She claimed that she’s faced “deception, intimidation and calculated attacks” since the lawsuit began three years ago.
“The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth,” she continued.
Meghan Markle has long had a contentious relationship with the British press, which could be partly why she decided to move back to her home state of California last year with her family. The outcome of this lawsuit will likely do Meghan no favors when it comes to her relationship with the media across the pond.
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