As I looked through our old coverage of the Duchess of Sussex’s legal victory against the Daily Mail, I was struck again by how weird it was that everything just seemed to disappear, wrapped up tightly with few questions. Meghan sued the Daily Mail’s parent company in 2019, several months after the Mail on Sunday published selections from a handwritten letter from Meghan to her toxic father. Meghan’s lawsuit about about copyright infringement but it was about other things too. The Mail kept extending the scope of their “defense” so that they could go on a fishing expedition through Meghan’s life and publish everything in a negative light. The case ended up turning around in Meghan’s favor when several people in Kensington Palace and Clarence House were being pulled into the legal drama. Suddenly, the judge granted Meghan’s summary judgment and there were only a handful of very curiously-worded stories from “royal sources” about all of it. Well, nine months later and the Mail is appealing the decision and there will be hearings on it this week:
Meghan Markle is preparing for a new showdown with a U.K. tabloid over a letter she sent her father begging him to stop talking to the media. The Mail on Sunday lost a privacy and copyright case against the Duchess of Sussex in February, but it is appealing against the U.K. High Court’s decision. The hearing has been extended to a third day, having initially been listed for two, and will start Tuesday, November 9, running until Thursday, November 11.
If Meghan wins, then her original victory will be re-enforced, finally bringing an end to a lawsuit that has run for more than three years and at times threatened to expose the inner workings of her media operation.
However, if the newspaper wins the appeal, the case will likely be sent for a trial in which Meghan would have to give evidence and be questioned by its lawyers. Raising the stakes further still, the Mail on Sunday would be entitled to demand the disclosure of documents and messages by Meghan and potentially a group of her friends. The case centers around a letter Meghan sent to her father in August 2019 in which she begged him to stop talking to the media about her.
At this point, if the people within Keensington Palace had any “smoking gun” evidence which damaged Meghan or her case, they would have already revealed it to the Mail or to some other outlet. Let’s not forget, Prince William and Jason Knauf couldn’t help but leave their fingerprints all over that naked character assassination in which they branded Meghan a psychopath and a bully. If Knauf had the goods on Meghan, he would have already turned it over to the Mail. What little they do “have” on Meghan is mostly sh-t which will boomerang back onto them and make them look downright evil. So I think this is mostly the Mail’s last gasp with this particular case, but I bet the outlet will find some way to get at least a dozen more headlines out of it.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
“If Meghan wins, then her original victory will be re-enforced, finally bringing an end to a lawsuit that has run for more than three years and at times threatened to expose the inner workings of her media operation.”
Sure, that’s why she’s sueing. Sure. Nothing to do with her right to privacy and to not be harassed.
Interesting that there is little coverage on the fact that the Daily Fail’s chief witness is on staff with William…..literally William’s right hand man is aiding the Daily Fail in a court case against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
I don’t understand the part about how the law suit “threatened to expose the inner workings of her media operations.” What media operations?
I bet that they think she emailed her friends to ask them to speak to People about how nice she is. And the Mail thinks this somehow nullifies her claim that she deserves privacy. It’s stupid–the letter to her dad was pretty clearly private. Just because that skeezy keenster Jason helped her draft it doesn’t mean it wasn’t personal and private.
I agree. They’re dancing around coming out and saying that she orchestrated the whole thing.
That’s exactly what the MoS is arguing, its not even a secret, I think it was actually part of their defense – that by authorizing her friends to talk to People magazine she was waiving the right to privacy and the friends deliberately mentioned the letter to bait her father into releasing the letter.
Jason said at the last minute that he was not exerting any privacy claim to the letter, which of course he wasn’t going to do, that sets up a really bad precedent for the royals, where their private correspondence can be leaked because someone helped write it.
They desperately want the time stamp on that email too. Meghan only emails at 5 am after all.
That f00ker jasonknauf didnt “help” M draft her own damn letter to her own damn father. We already heard that a senior courtier said the IQ of the whole lot of M’s husband’s relatives wasnt equal to hers so what would that rotten-toothed m0r0n help her with?
Even if it was true that she did orchestrate the entire thing with her friends in an attempt to bait her father into making the letter public, the DM STILL broke copyright law by printing it without her permission! Just because he (or a Kp staff member) gave it to them does not mean they must print it. A reputable publication would have a legal department that everything goes through before going to print, and they would have forced the editor to remove the letter, but we’re talking about the fall, and it’s not as if they’ve ever been known to obey laws. They’re trying to make it about all of the convoluted events that led up to them getting the letter, but that’s all irrelevant. The legal issue is solely the copyright, and I hope the judge isn’t someone too scared of the establishment to issue a correct ruling.
I mean, even if Meghan authorised her friends to speak to People (she didn’t), how is that at all different to what the Palace usually does (all 3 courts)? Why phrase it in such a way when it’s related to her? They don’t seem to have a problem with the Palace’s media operations.
Using that phrase is the whole point of Royston’s article. Newsweek is not unbiased in it’s writings about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. The zombie magazine has pretty much been a puppet/extension of the British/tabloid media shading Meghan only not quite as overtly.
It’s also pretty funny for the DM to speculate about the extent of Meghan’s “media operations” when they themselves are the large corporation targeting a single citizen about a personal letter. Plus, at the end of the day, aren’t they just highlighting the fact that Meghan’s one woman operation has consistently outplayed them?
It’s just a thinly veiled dog whistle towards the derangers. They are convinced that Meghan employs Sunshine Sachs to coordinate the Sussex Squad (whom they claim are paid bots) and any other positive press, deals, and celebrity support that Meghan gets.
If Sunshine Sachs was running the show, things would look very different! They would have branded it something better than “squad” and put some rules about Twitter behavior into place so that some squad members, not all, but some, didn’t act so unhinged online and make it look like all of Meghan’s fans are like that. Some of them are great people who’ve done wonderful things and raised tons of money for Meghan’s charities and who share only positive articles about her and Harry, no Cambridge-bashing. But many others are crass, constantly getting into fights with Cambridge fans, resorting to insults, and name-calling, which at times can make it seem like all of Meghan’s fans are squad members, a monolith, since those people are often the loudest.
I know others who agree, they think the squad comes across as overly aggressive at times, and can sometimes actually do Meghan a disservice by acting that way in the name of defending her. But no one wants to say it out loud because of that very reason, nobody wants the squad members after them because they can be awful. There are also repulsive Cambridge fans who are just as bad, and who instigate a lot of the squad’s reactions, but if the ones on Meghan’s side were working for Sunshine Sachs, they wouldn’t be stooping to that level. They wouldn’t want Meghan’s supporters associated with garbage like that (meaning the language and fighting in the threads, not the people themselves), they would act far classier since that’s how Meghan presents herself, and I imagine they would want her supporters to be well-regarded.
Another round of Daily Fail dragging this case out that they’ve already lost. This is all just for headlines.
I agree. Plus they didn’t didn’t do the front page apology as was part of the outcome. I wonder just how much the Mail has made out of their harassment of Meghan in clicks and ad revenue.
The apology and the damages that MoS will hv to pay to M will be done after this so-called appeal is done and dusted. BTW, thats one of the main reasons they appealed: they dont want to have to print a prominently-placed apology to M.
That was part of what she asked for in her settlement. She wanted to know exactly how many clicks and how much revenue was related to any of these negative stories related to her letter or the lawsuit. She wanted every penny they made off this.
@ notasugarhere, which our magnificent Meghan will gleefully donate every euro, franc, pence, cent, pound, sen and peso!!
@ MerryGirl, this isn’t solely for headlines. This is solely based on NOT wanting to have to fulfill the terms of the lawsuit, which requires the front page apology. The MoS would rather burn their building down than publish an apology in which they are required to do so after their brutal loss in the lawsuit. MoS does not want to go down in history for having been involved in a lawsuit in which they must apologize, it spells trouble for their ability to continue with the lies and the smears. BP doesn’t want Knauf coming within 10 city blocks of a court room either, to which Meghan has not only MoS over a barrel, but also BP, TOBB, as well as the entire Royal family. The fact of the matter is that their appeal is also frivolous as well, but they are willing to throw everything onto the wall to see what will actually stick.
Charm, really? It will be fascinating if we get to actually see the amount of money they made off of all of those disgusting stories about her. I’m sure the number will be mindblowing.
DM is already engaged in extreme biased reporting of the hearing. Giving its readers what they want to hear and the impression that the DM is already winning.
Yeah, they have nothing. And if/when Meghan wins this appeal, it’s officially over for the mail. They can’t do anything else regarding this case!
I’m just looking forward to them finally publishing the ordered apology that they owe her. They’ve been putting it off in hopes of winning this appeal, but it’s never going to happen.
I pray she wins this, it should have been over after the initial judgement. She has waited long enough for a published apology. These rags need to be held in check, it is not ok to ruin, stalk, lie about and harass anyone for profit.
I’m not up on UK civil law. But in the US- summary judgment is really difficult to obtain. There have to be no questions of law. It has to be clear cut.
I would imagine incredibly difficult to overturn.
But for the racist mail- they will slant anything to get headlines out of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex.
That’s all this is. A chance to milk it for money got their publication.
Kind of makes one wish the publishers were facing jail time.
The appeal will also be on whether or not the judge at the application made an error in law, which will be hard to show.
Ariel do you know if any of the people involved in the phone hacking scandal had criminal charges pressed against them? I know that one paper, News of the World or whatever, had to shut down, but the individuals behind it should be the ones punished severely. That is the only true deterrent that I can think of, in situations like this.
https://bylineinvestigates.com/2021/11/06/mail-on-sunday-appeals-against-meghan-victory-next-week/
Helpful explanation of what Fail on Sunday really want to achieve. Bad dad is a loose cannon and a very poor witness. Jason Knauf employer will not want him being cross examined either.
Thank you for the link. So it seems likely that even if the Mail on Sunday loses this appeal, they will appeal again to the Supreme Court. So it’s going to be a long time before we see their front page apology.
Yes for the Fail sorry really is the hardest word. They look stupid, petty and vindictive taking this all the way to the Supreme Court when ludicrous appeal fails.
Stupid really is throwing good money after bad in this case just to pursue a vendetta but Bylines Investigate s website have plenty on the Fail and none of it is good.
The article mentions this but just to point out again – if she loses this appeal, it doesn’t mean she’s lost the case, just that it will go to trial (which could be pretty messy, but she could still win.)
The copyright claim always seemed pretty open and shut to me, so I think she has a good chance of winning the appeal and this whole thing finally ending.
I agree. I think the only area where the judge might be open to a finding of an error in law is the privacy portion of it. The copyright law has been established for years, including the case with Charles, which is close enough to work as a precedent.
Knauf is being mentioned as having provided another witness statement. I don’t think he wants to end up in a trial because he will be cross examined and it won’t be good for him. He will end up dragging in William if he ends up on the stand.
It’s also possible that even if Knauf did have to testify, the palace would pay him enough to lie. I know how conspiracy theory-ish that sounds, and I am so not a conspiracy theorist! But if what is at stake for the BRF is it being proven with clear, incontrovertible evidence in a court of law that the palace, specifically one of the HEIRS, actively participated in a long, vicious smear campaign against a member of their own family, particularly the one who’d already exposed (recently) how racist they are, they will be desperate to do anything necessary to prevent it.
Isn’t Jason an American? Worst case scenario, he moves back here if he ends up facing perjury accusations. He will slither away from the consequences of his actions, just like the rest of them constantly do. And considering the BRF was refusing to hand Andrew over to the FBI when they merely wanted to question him, I doubt Jason would be forced back to the UK to deal with it. The truth would be so unbelievably damaging to the RF, even moreso than the skin color issue, which was enormously damaging, and I don’t doubt they would use whatever tactics needed to keep it quiet.
Apparently, Jason has given a witness statement to the Fail. He is saying that Meghan knwe very well that there was a possibility that her father would leak the letter. Ugh, I’m so disgusted by these people. I really hope she wins this! The fact alone that an appeal was granted makes me worried. I know it doesn’t mean that she lost the case, but I don’t want her near shutter island
They still had no right to publish the letter without her permission. And unless Jason Knauf is a mind reader how would he know what toxic tom planned to do? Unless of course he told him to leak that letter.
@msiam while I 100% agree with you on a moral level, I’m not sure about the legal level. Meghan sent that letter to her father, that makes it his. Doesn’t he have the right to publish/ allow another party to publish it? Was it leaked by someone else? I guess I’m just confused. I thought a third party (Poor Jason) leaked it without either Meghan’s or Tom’s permission.
@Steph, no, apparently under UK law, the copyright remains with the writer of the letter. Her father had no right to allow another party to publish it, he didn’t own the copyright, Meghan always did.
@Steph, the MoS was the one who published it. And in the UK they have to get permission from the author which they didn’t. Doesn’t matter how they got a hold of the letter. MoS knows this, they know they were in the wrong, they don’t want to admit the black woman that they have been trashing for years has them over a barrel.
@Steph I think it’s clear from the summary judgement that copyright remains with the author, which is why the Mail tried to argue (and failed) that Knauf was a co-author. The judge said that even if they were trying to refute what was said in the People’s article, it did not justify the publication of substantial parts of the letter.
Thank you all for explaining!
That’s not a surprise though. Of course they knew it was possible. I don’t think that should mean she shouldn’t be able to expect/hope for privacy. That her words would somehow reach her dad.
I hope MM’s lawyers can get Knauf on the stand. I’m sure he told TT to leak the letter.
Of course she knew it was possible. Her father was running to Piers Morgan or whoever every chance he got to talk about Meghan, of course she knew the letter could be leaked. That’s why she was so careful in what she said in it, that’s why she brought in Jason to have him look at it. That doesn’t mean it was RIGHT to leak it or that the MoS had the right to publish it.
KP does not want Jason anywhere near the witness stand, my guess is he will be very suddenly “unavailable” this week and if she ends up losing the appeal and this goes to trial, oh well, Jason has moved far far away, he can’t make the trial, so sorry.
Unless the UK runs it differently, if Jason provided an affidavit on behalf of the Mail, then Meghan’s lawyers have a right for cross examination on the affidavit. If they haven’t done that then the statement is not very contentious.
Jason avoiding trial is less possible in a world where trials are being conducted virtually. He could easily participate via zoom even if he was out of the country.
@Nic unless they send him to a place like Africa that doesn’t have the internet, computers or social media lol.
(please note everyone I am mocking the idea from 2018 that William wanted to send H&M “to Africa” like its one big country without any technology.)
Whatever statement Jason actually made to the court was carefully crafted so he couldn’t be called as a witness under oath in an actual trial. I firmly believe the last thing KP wants is for Jason to be under oath.
And we all expect the white markles to leak everything they possibly have on Meghan, and make up stuff to fill the gaps for money. That in no way clears the MoS. He can try to sell whatever he wants. Buyer beware and they did not
Legal battles give me a headache, so I have no idea what’s going to happen. The only thing I doubt here is whether Jason or KP are worried about Jason taking the stand.
I am aware that the judge will only be interested in facts relating to the case. They’re not going to be interested in anything that William may or may not have done. It’s all going to be about this letter, and if Jason is aware that it was sent with the expectation that it would be made public, I have no doubt that he will be perfectly willing to get up there and say that.
If they weren’t worried about Knauf at all why did they make such a fuss about his “resignation” when he’s clearly still working with them? (He was right there in Glasgow with them). There are a number of things they don’t want him to say.
That’s not how it works in a courtroom. If Jason takes the stand, it isnt going to be so he can say “yes Meghan knew the letter would be public” and then he hops down again.
There are going to be follow up questions – “Were you involved in drafting the letter? Why would she have brought you in like that? Was she instructed to run all private correspondence by you? was that standard protocol for the KP household at the time? were you in charge of handling her father prior to the wedding? What were your instructions? was there pressure to use her father to stop the wedding? how often were you in contact with Thomas Markle? Was he ever offered money and if so, by whom? did he tell you he was going to give the letter to the MoS? Did you talk to anyone at the MoS about this prior to publication? Did you say there would be no pushback if the letter was published? didn’t you call the Mail at one point and apologize after one of the Duchess’s friends tried to correct a story and assure them it wouldn’t happen again? Were there similar assurances made this time? Did you ever prevent any of the Duchess’s other friends from talking to the press about her?”
And that’s just off the top of my head, i’m not a litigator who makes oodles of money a year who’s going to be preparing for this for months, and I think most of the questions would survive an objection.
Don’t forget the royal family has Maxwell’s trial coming up and then Andrew’s trial next year. they don’t need ANY other messiness to come out in a courtroom. so no, they don’t want Knauf on the stand. My guess is that is why he gave a witness statement, to try to avoid being called, and it probably includes language like “this is the extent of my knowledge of this matter” or something.
@Becks1 He could also be discredited as a reliable witness. He is also the author of the email which accuses Meghan of bullying. Same email which got leaked to the media before the Oprah interview. Clearly he has issues with Meghan. None of which is important as Meghan never consented to The Mail for her words to be published.
@Myra oh absolutely, but being discredited would also be a really bad look for the royals.
his hands are incredibly dirty when it comes to Sussexit which is why I think we will never see him testify,
If Jason had any evidence that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wanted or had expectations that the letter was going to be made public he would have supplied it back in Jan/Feb?.imo
I still find it curious that we’ve only seen Jason’s “sent” email and not a response from Simon Case to Jason. Unless, I missed it.
Heather, I laughed out loud at your comment, not at all at you!, but at the thought of the team of KP staffers being capable of crafting such a letter, deftly preventing Jason from ever having to testify. They screw up literally every single thing they try to do, ever, even the easiest things, because they’re so freaking incompetent. It’s so bad that it often seems like they’re purposely trying to sabotage the Cambridges by constantly letting them make such fools out of themselves.
You’re right that the dead last thing they want is Jason on the stand, which probably means that his correspondence was conducted in a way that will assure he will be called to testify 😂
Lol, Meghan has great lawyers and evidence, as well. More stalling tactics from the DM, which is fine, it only costs them more money.
Exactly. This same law firm won the case for her initially. They will contest this appeal with everything they have. So far only what the Mail attorneys are saying is being reported. Just need to let the process unfold but the Fail really want a trial. I hope they lose this appeal and this thing is over with once and for all.
The Fail needs to take the L, pay the money and print the apology. Its “star” witness, Bad Dad, has gone rogue. He went on Aussie TV and blabbed he was paid to stop the wedding. That interview was pulled. Now TT filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court against the agency he worked with for Pap-gate for 1 million dollars, claiming it short changed him.. He is basically the media for his damaged reputation and loss of relationship with Meghan. Does the Fail really want tea spill on it to scald it? If Markle reveals under oath he was paid to testify against Meghan (and brings receipts) I don’t see how the appeal helps the Fail.
I am loving that Bad dad has filed hand written complaint and does not have a lawyer. Am wondering whether he will settle for free Kentucky fired chicken for life if the agency decide to settle out of court?!
His handwritten complaint/petition where he name checked Meghan and Harry but couldn’t spell duchess. It’s early, I’m easily amused.
Okay, that’s funny. I’m easily amused quite often. We can all make spelling, grammar, typo, whatever mistakes. It’s not a big deal. When Bad Dad does it on a formal complaint it is funny. When Angela Levin retweets something that misspelled someone’s last name and then misspells the last name in her own comment calling them “honourable” *cough-no way man*, I find funny & curious. It’s Knauf not Knauff.
I don’t care for the most part that people misspell things. We all do. When someone calls themselves a “royal expert” or “journalist. You’d think she would know how to spell the names of the bad characters and others of her ilk.jmo
Shut up!! It was handwritten and he’s representing himself? LMFAO. Ted Bundy also started out representing himself, and we know how that went. This is comedy gold
Jason was initially trying to claim copyright bc he helped with the letter? So he was admitting that it was him who leaked it? That as a top staffer this was acceptable? Can someone please clear up his role in this for me?
No, Thomas Markle gave the letter to the MoS. There is no question about that.
The MoS was trying to argue, among other things, that because Jason helped her write it, he also had a privacy claim re: the letter and a copyright claim (I think the next step was that since he had a copyright claim, if he said the MoS could publish it, then there was no copyright violation, but I don’t think it ever got that far because at the last minute he said he had no claim over the letter or something.) That was when it kind of became clear that someone said to KP “you need to shut this down NOW.”
Fail are really angry with their private contact who assured them that palace aide was coauthor and copyright wasn’t an issue so go ahead and publish the letter. Imagine their fury when 18 months on Jason Knauf deny coauthor ship and Crown don’t claim copyright. Slam dunk for Meghan on that count. Suspecting the old coot would publish the letter is not the same as Meghan agreeing its publication. Bad dad wrongly believed letter was his but Fail knew all along copyright resides with author and they were wrong to publish without seeking her permission. Original Judge gave detailed and reasoned argument about lack of justification for publication of a private letter. The fail lost because they were in the wrong so Court of Appeal should dismiss this appeal just like they did with Johnny Depp!
Meghan is so savvy that I wouldn’t even be surprised if she set it up this way, purposely playing Jason. She knew by then that he was not at all trustworthy, didn’t like or respect her, and certainly didn’t have her best interests in mind. There is absolutely no reason she would have had to show him the letter, she knew her father would do it himself. It seems like Jason was dragged into this unnecessarily, by Meghan making him some sort of middleman to get back at him for his shoddy treatment of her, and in a way in which there would be a paper trail because we know she keeps allll the receipts. (It was no accident imo that she pointedly told Oprah that Kate wrote her a note of apology, she knew it was putting the palace on notice that she had tangible evidence of Kate admitting wrongdoing toward her, in the guise of giving Kate credit for being such a “good person,” and that the entire world knew it.)
So it LOOKED to Jason and KP that she was showing it to them out of deference, respect, to get their permission, etc., when none of that was necessary. Thomas probably picked up the phone to call the DM the moment he received that letter to see how much $ he could get for it. There was never any reason for Jason to be involved. Meghan is a strategic planner, and she knew that the letter would get to the DM anyway, so in the meantime, why not screw Jason over, just for fun? Kill two birds with one stone! If there is any truth to this, I love her even more. As of right now, even though it is insanely farfetched, I am choosing to believe this is how it happened (:
@Annie, I see the letter as a daughter’s attempt to get a rogue, toxic father to stop going to the press/media. Not some grand strategic plan on her part. This Tatler article explains Jason/RF’s involvement. It’s from Nov. 2020, before Jason said he or the palaces? I believe had any authorship claims to the letter. I know, it’s Tatler.
https://www.tatler.com/article/meghan-markle-had-help-from-palace-aides-to-write-thomas-markle-letter-privacy-battle-mail-on-sunday
We don’t know how nefarious Meghan thought Jason was at the time she wrote/sent the letter in August of 2018. Meghan’s successful cookbook launch was Sept. 2018. We do know an even more active smear campaign ramped up in Oct. 2018 when it became known Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was pregnant. Headlines of trying to steal attention from Eugenie’s wedding by saying she announced it there (which is bs), criticisms and lies from a successful Australia tour. November 2018 headlines-the Meghan made Kate cry and Toubatti quitting because of Meghan-both false stories. Those 2 stories ran for awhile. I’m sure there others in December 2018/January 2019. We know now that Meghan was experiencing suicidal ideation in January 2019.
It was after People magazines Feb. 6?, 2019 story The Truth about Meghan(friends defending her) came out that Toxic Tom sold the letter story to the MoS with instructions to only use excerpts (who helped TT in this excerpt decision making?). TT claims he did this to clear his reputation regarding things said in the People mag story. Los Angeles based Caroline Graham’s MoS’s letter story ran February 9, 2019. It would be interesting to see phone records of Toxic Tom, Caroline Graham, Jason Knauf between Feb.3 thru Feb. 9, 2019.
When I googled for reference, pictures of Caroline Graham with Bad Dad came up. He/they really are terrible people. Not that any further proof was needed.
Basically yeah, which is why he flipped at the last second. It would blow the smear campaign right out of the water because how could he justify leaking the letter?
Thomas Markle leaked the letter, but I suspect the Mail contacted Knauf about the letter and he advised that he helped write the letter so they could go ahead and publish it.
The Mail knows they didn’t have the right to publish the letter because they would be familiar with UK copyright law. They took the risk of publishing the letter based on something.
I’m guessing they risked publishing the letter 1. They didn’t think they would be sued. 2. If they were sued, they presumed Meghan would use a palace law firm that would knowingly bungle things up for her. Which is why she went outside of the palace/s and they were big mad. Meghan probably has some good receipts for that decision.
Editor claimed in court document that he had meeting with Senior palace aide who gave certain assurances that Crown owned copyright as M had help drafting letter and like, Crown would NOT sue. Confidential palace aide was referred to as Source J, sorry S for secret and totally not Jason!! Boy were they cross when Jason Knauf totally disavowed this in legal letter 18 months later on.
Quite frankly having read Judge,s detailed evaluation and judgement MoS are at fault and appeal should be rejected. It is quite obvious that Meghan wrote the letter herself because it is about deeply personal family stuff so how could an outsider have written something so heartfelt? MoS totally miscalculated and now must pay the price. The Crown will protect the heir and Jason. Thomas Markle can not be relied on to even give evidence and if he does will go seriously rogue. It is about time someone put some hard questions to the old coot about his lies and blackmail of his own daughter! So Mail is making two more miscalculations if they rely on either man should Court of Appeals agree that A High Court trial is necessary.
The Daily Mail has an aristocratic family as primary share holders. This could sway the court in their favor. The UK is big on class division. Meghan married out of her class. Could this be the time for more revenge?
It is so unfair for Meghan if the UK judicial system is corrupt and will favor the “powers- that-be” which is the aristocracy. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens. The UK justice system maybe feels that it has to take vengeance for or on behalf of the Royal Family. They want Meghan humiliated and groveling at her feet. I so hope it doesn’t happen because, if it does, Meghan will be defrauded and deprived of her right to a fair trial in the hands of corrupt judges as these judges themselves break the basic principle of equality before the law. Crossing my fingers she overcomes this and comes out the winner.
I honestly hope the Mail loses this. It’s time for this to end.
They’ve been sued before. They have driven people to suicide and still they print. They are a monolith with no one to stop them. Govt. and the RF don’t have the balls, they steamroll normal people, pass guilty/innocent sentences in large print without ever seeing a court room, and they can control the mood of the country. Who’s going to or can stop them? We can only hope that the populace can employ critical thinking skills, but based on the comments on the Fail, the future’s looking grim.
it’s crazy how comfortable jason is with having his name so openly associated with things meant to hurt meghan. in history, the record will show that jason played an integral role in shaping meghan’s experience in the family. whether that record is friendly to her is tbd, but in the case that it is, he’s going to look really bad. his resume includes testifying in favor of the daily mail.. like???
Jason Knauf is a traitor who kisses the butts of William and Kate.
Remember when we used to call him “poor Jason” and felt sorry for him for being stuck with such inept people like W&K?
Man did he have us fooled…….
Jason was working for the Sussexes when all this went down. You know he was taking his marching orders from TOBB because Jason is a back-stabbing weasel with the morals of a cockroach. He aligned himself with the Cambridges thinking it would be a strategic move, and was given the Foundation to run. Now, like a cockroach, he’s been hiding out of sight, covertly working with Incandescent Bill until the end of the year when his husband starts his new job in some unnamed country. It’s all so transparent that he was always taking his marching orders from Bill and Keen.
I don’t even know what there is to appeal. It was her letter and she didn’t give anyone the right to publish it. The end
Experts say that Meghan should win again.
Personally I’d find it delightful if William were to be exposed. He was the instigator after all. “That would be very damaging to them.” Damn straight it would be.
Andrew Caldecott QC, lead barrister for Associated, told the Court of Appeal on the first day of a three-day hearing that a new witness statement from Mr Knauf, formerly a senior royal communications official, contradicts the Duchess’s statements about the letter.
Knauf’s statement, according to Caldecott, says that the Duchess was aware at the time the letter was written that her father might make it public and it also says that there was at least indirect contact between the Duchess and authors of a book which discussed the letter.
Associated is likely to rely on these claims to support its legal argument that the letter was never really private and that the Duchess herself was complicit in making its contents public.
Both these points were evaluated and dismissed by original Judge. Being aware old coot was likely to sell contents of letter was NOT anywhere close to giving him permission to do so . Finding Freedom published long after MoS disclosure so can’t be used as proof that she wanted letter in public domain. She wanted the old coot to stop running to the tabloids and that is why she wrote the letter not to give him something more to flog!!
If this is their new evidence it is very weak.
@Lady Digby, the sentence after “the Duchess herself was complicit in making its contents public’ from the byline link had an interesting part.
‘one of the judges mentioned that the Duchess herself had submitted a substantial new statement in evidence’.
I hope she drops enough receipts to bury them all.
Byline Investigates has run a live stream on today’s proceedings. The chief judge slapped the Fail lawyer’s hand for trying to muddy the waters. The Jason statement included Meghan trying to contact the authors of Finding Freedom. Tomorrow the judges will examine Jason’s statement. This mess just got hotter.
It sounds like Jason’s statement is a rehash of things. The Finding Freedom stuff was already brought up a while back
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/finding-freedom-biography-author-meghan-markle-father-letter-b900424.html
I am bewildered that Jason’s statement could even be entered as evidence for an appeal unless he was cross examined on it. Maybe the UK runs this differently but anyone who provides an affidavit regarding new evidence normally has to be cross examined by opposing counsel before the motion is even argued. Perhaps there are transcripts of cross examination they will enter evidence as well.
The Fail’s lawyers just brought up a text allegedly from Bad Dad showing he did reach out to Harry and Meghan before the wedding, so to shoot down Meghan’s argument she couldn’t reach him. The Fail is basically accusing her of perjury.
@aquarius64, does this sound like deja vu to you too? We’ve all been following along and sounds like the lawyers are covering ground already covered. Unless it’s a new text? & different dates.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-52354898
On 14 May 2018, it says, Mr Markle sent Meghan a text message to apologise and confirm that he would not be attending the wedding.
It says that around half an hour later, after several calls to Mr Markle went unanswered, Prince Harry sent the following messages to Mr Markle from Meghan’s phone: