Meghan Markle’s Lawsuit Against the Publisher Of The Mail On Sunday Starts With Harassment Claims

On Friday the first pre-trial hearing for Meghan Markle’s privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday kicked off via teleconference.

The setting was necessary due to the current coronavirus pandemic isolation mandate. The purpose of the session was to allow the defendant, Associated Newspapers, to request that parts of Meghan’s claim be removed or “struck out” from the range of the trial.

Justice Warby is presiding over the hearing, and ITV reports that the goal is to have a decision, “within the week.” No trial date has yet been set.

Harry And Meghan Were Expected To Listen In Remotely On The Event

The lawsuit involves the Mail on Sunday’s publication in 2018 of a letter from Meghan to her father, Thomas Markle. The handwritten letter was sent soon after he did make an appearance at her wedding to Prince Harry.

It was last fall that the couple confirmed the legal proceeding. At that time it was announced that they had filed a claim due to, “the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.”

Associated Newspapers Has Been Accused Of Harassing Thomas Markle

What took place at today’s hearing? Meghan’s legal team accused Associated Newspapers of, “harassing, humiliating, manipulating and exploiting,” Thomas Markle, a man the court heard described as “vulnerable.”
It is also being reported that the Associated Newspapers defense team argued that Meghan herself has not had direct contact with Thomas in over a year.

Has Meghan Even Been In Contact With Her Father?

According to the Telegraph, the court was informed that “the last contact between the Duchess and her father by phone was a missed text message on her wedding day – May 19, 2018, and they have since sent one letter to each other.”

Court documents revealed this week shared some of the content from those emails. For instance, one text spells out, “Tom, it’s Harry and I’m going to call you right now. Please pick up, thank you.”

Apparently Harry sent another text, somewhat more urgent, “Tom, Harry again! I really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize, we understand the circumstances but ‘going public’ will only make the situation worse. If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as … don’t involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks.”