Meghan Markle Receives Public Apology After Winning Her Privacy Case Against British Tabloid

Meghan Markle has been granted a public apology from the publishers of the Mail on Sunday - - after a lengthy court battle with the British tabloid. On Saturday, Dec. 25, the publications printed and ran the apology on the front- page which was required after it was ruled that the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline websites breached the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy in February 2019, after publishing parts of a 5-page letter she wrote to her father Thomas Markle. 

The letter was written after Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018, after her father chose not to attend. 

“Following a hearing on 19-20 January 2021, and a further hearing on 5 May 2021, the Court has given judgment for The Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement,” the notice on the site reads under the headline "The Duchess of Sussex."

“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 in Mail Online.” In addition, the site was required to include links to summaries of the judgement. 

The statement continued: “Financial remedies have been agreed. The full judgment following the 19-20 January hearing and the Court’s summary of it can be found here and here.”  In addition to the apology appearing on the site, it was ruled that it must appear on the homepage of the MailOnline for a period of one week.  

Earlier this month, Markle, 40, was awarded the victory in the case. On Dec. 2, the Court of Appeal in London ruled in her favor when it concluded that the case would not proceed to trial and that Markle would be issued financial damages in addition to her public apology.   

"This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what's right," Markle said in a statement at the time. "While this win is precedent setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create." 

The statement continued: "From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules. The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth. In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks." 

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