LONDON, (The Southern African Times) – A British tabloid published a statement Sunday heralding its own defeat in a legal battle waged by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, against its parent company Associated Newspapers.
Atop the front page of Britain’s the Mail on Sunday was a sentence acknowledging that the former Meghan Markle won “her legal case for copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers for articles published in The Mail on Sunday and posted on Mail Online.”
The Mail on Sunday printed the notice nearly eight months after a British judge ordered the publication to do so, as part of its punishment for infringing the duchess’ copyright by publishing excerpts of a private letter she wrote to her estranged father.
A brief report on Meghan’s victory also appeared in the upper-left corner of Sunday’s third page and on the Mail Online website:
“Following a hearing on [Jan. 19 and 20, 2021], and a further hearing on [May 5 2021], the Court has given judgment for the Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement,” it read.
“The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in the Mail on Sunday and on Mail Online. Financial remedies have been agreed.”
The actor-turned-duchess sued Associated Newspapers in 2019 for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement after the Mail on Sunday released a substantial portion of the emotional missive she penned to her father, Thomas Markle, upon wedding Britain’s Prince Harry in 2018.
The letter contained personal details about Meghan’s relationship with her father and conveyed the duchess’ anguish over public statements her father made about her.
In February, High Court Justice Mark Warby ruled that the publisher had misused the duchess’ private information. He contended that Meghan “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private” and deemed Associated Newspaper’s actions “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful.”
