Associated Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mail, sent a letter to ViacomCBS demanding that “misleading” content be deleted from “Oprah with Meghan and Harry”.
Associated Newspapers’ lawyers criticized the making of British tabloid headlines in the interview that allegedly demonstrated the racist coverage that Meghan Markle faced in the British press.
The letter stated that the headlines of the interview, which drew more than 17 million viewers to its debut, were distorted and tampered with.
“As a responsible and honest broadcaster, we therefore believe that you will reject, as we do, the deliberate distortion and adulteration of newspaper headlines in the deceptive British newspaper broadcast on ‘Oprah with Meghan and Harry'”, wrote the director Elizabeth Hartley.
“Many of the headlines were taken out of context or deliberately edited and displayed as supporting evidence for the program’s claim that the Duchess of Sussex was subjected to racist coverage by the British press. This edition was not made apparent to viewers and, as As a result, this section of the program is seriously
inaccurate and misleading, “the letter continued.
Hartley pointed to three specific cases that they claimed were “gravely inaccurate”.
One included a headline shown in the montage that read, “Meghan’s seed will contaminate our royal family.” The letter said it was a direct quote from a 2018 Daily Mail story entitled “Meghan’s seed will contaminate our royal family”: the UKIP chief’s glamorous model’s lover, 25, is suspended from the party because of racist texts about Prince Harry’s wife is. ”
Associated Newspapers wrote that, in deleting the full headline, the montage suggested that Mail Online did or agreed with the statement, “which it clearly did not”.
The media group asked for the images to be removed before the interview aired again on Friday night.
“I should be grateful for your urgent confirmation that the offending content will be removed from the program that is being made available to the public,” said the letter. “We also understand that a new transmission is being planned for tonight. The assembly should therefore be deleted before that transmission.”
ViacomCBS did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle said that racism played a “big role” in their departure from Kensington Palace and the UK
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Archie photographed together in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2019.
Pool / Getty Images
During their interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex opened up about their highly publicized departure from Kensington Palace.
According to the couple, the treatment that Markle, 39, received from British tabloids has become too severe.
Harry, 36, said a close friend of British publishers warned him that the couple would face racist treatment.
“Please don’t do this to the media,” said Harry to an unidentified friend. “They will destroy your life.”
“He said, ‘You need to understand that the UK is very prejudiced,'” said Harry. “I stopped and said, ‘The UK is not a fanatic, the British press is intolerant, specifically the tabloids, is that what you mean?'”
The friend insisted that the United Kingdom itself was a fanatic, which Harry believed was not true.
“But, unfortunately, if the information source is inherently corrupt, racist or biased, it will be filtered out to the rest of society,” said Harry.
Markle secured a legal victory against Mail On Sunday and will receive an apology on the front page
Markle had previously sued Mail on Sunday alleging that the tabloid misused his private information, personal data and infringed on his copyright by publishing a letter he wrote to his father, Thomas Markle Sr.
The letter was published in a 2019 article entitled: “Revealed: the letter that shows the real tragedy of Meghan’s breakup with a father she says has ‘broken her heart into a million pieces’.”
A judge ruled in favor of Markle in February and said that Associated Newspapers violated copyright by publishing the letter.
In March, a judge ruled that the publication should post an apology on the front page for Markle.
Markle said in a statement obtained by Insider that she is “grateful to the courts for holding Associated Newspapers and The Mail on Sunday responsible for their illegal and dehumanizing practices”.
“These tactics (and those of her sister publications MailOnline and Daily Mail) are not new; in fact, they have been happening for a long time without consequences. For these vehicles, it is a game. For me and so many others, it is real life, real relationships and very real sadness. The damage they have done and continue to do is profound, “said Markle.