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

The Duchess of Sussex won her Supreme Court case against The Mail on Sunday. A judge ruled that the newspaper violated Meghan Markle’s privacy by publishing excerpts from a letter she had sent to her distant father, Thomas Markle.

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

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

A judge ruled that The Mail on Sunday violated Meghan Markle’s privacy by publishing excerpts from a letter she had sent to her distant father, Thomas Markle

The newspaper argued that Markle, 76, asked her to publish excerpts from the 2018 letter to clarify things.

The newspaper noted that Meghan is a senior member of the Royal Family and raised doubts about whether she had authorized the letter’s previous publicity.

Mr. Markle spoke because his daughter’s close friends revealed their existence in an anonymous interview with American magazine People, in which they characterized her as a “loving” letter.

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

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

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

But Meghan’s lawyers successfully argued that a trial was unnecessary because the newspaper “had no prospect” of setting up a successful defense.

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

Mail on Sunday is considering whether to appeal.