COURTING CONTROVERSY

Meghan Markle Wins Copyright Claim Over Letter to Father

Lord Justice Mark Warby issued his judgment, which completes a partial ruling he issued in February in favor of the Duchess of Sussex.

A high court judge has ruled in favor of Meghan Markle over the remaining aspects of her copyright claim against the Mail on Sunday. The Duchess of Sussex brought the case after the tabloid published a letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas, in 2018. “You haven’t reached out to me since the week of our wedding, and while you claim you have no way of contacting me, my phone number has remained the same. If you love me, as you tell the press you do, please stop,” the handwritten note said, in part. “Please allow us to live our lives in peace. Please stop lying, please stop creating so much pain, please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband. I realize you are so far down this rabbit hole that you feel (or may feel) there’s no way out, but if you take a moment to pause, I think you’ll see that being able to live with a clear conscience is more valuable than any payment in the world.”

Lord Justice Mark Warby issued the judgment, which completes a partial ruling he issued in February in favor of the Duchess, after Queen Elizabeth’s lawyers said the Crown had no copyright claim to the private letter—which Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Mail on Sunday, had previously argued was the case.