Meghan has spoken out after winning her court battle against Associated Newspapers. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan has spoken out after winning her court battle against Associated Newspapers. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan Markle has spoken out after her legal win over a UK publisher.
She issued a statement after the court ruled in her favour in a privacy case against Associated Newspapers.
The Duchess of Sussex took legal action against the publisher and owner of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday for publishing extracts from a private letter she wrote to her father Thomas in 2018.
Meghan said in a statement shared with HuffPost, "After two long years of pursuing litigation, I am grateful to the courts for holding Associated Newspapers and The Mail on Sunday to account for their illegal and dehumanising practices.
"These tactics (and those of their sister publications MailOnline and the Daily Mail) are not new; in fact, they've been going on for far too long without consequence," she continued.
"For these outlets, it's a game. For me and so many others, it's real life, real relationships, and very real sadness. The damage they have done and continue to do runs deep."
And while Meghan said the world needs "reliable, fact-checked, high-quality news", she said the tabloid's work was "the opposite" of that.
"We all lose when misinformation sells more than truth, when moral exploitation sells more than decency, and when companies create their business model to profit from people's pain."
Meghan went on to thank her legal team as well as her husband Prince Harry and her mother Doria Ragland.
"I share this victory with each of you, because we all deserve justice and truth, and we all deserve better."
Meghan has spoken out after winning her court battle against Associated Newspapers. Photo / Getty Images
Judge Sir Mark Warby said in his judgement that Markle had a "reasonable expectation" the letter to her father would stay private, and that the Mail's articles in 2019 interfered with that expectation.
"It was, in short, a personal and private letter," he wrote. "The majority of what was published was about the claimant's own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father's behaviour – as she saw it – and the resulting rift ... These are inherently private and personal matters."
A spokesperson for Associated Newspapers said in a statement, "We are very surprised by today's summary judgment and disappointed at being denied the chance to have all the evidence heard and tested in open court at a full trial.
"We are carefully considering the judgement's contents and will decide in due course whether to lodge an appeal."
Warby will lead a hearing on March 2 to discuss the costs with both sides.
