Meghan Markle Loses Opening Legal Battle With UK Tabloid, Insists Rights Were Violated

Meghan Markle lost the first round of her legal battle against the U.K. tabloid Mail on Sunday.

The Duchess of Sussex sued Mail on Sunday for publishing excerpts of a letter she sent to her dad, Thomas Markle Sr. Markle felt that the outlet only published the part of the letter that would make her look bad in the eyes of the public.

However, a London judge has dismissed a chunk of her lawsuit. The judge didn’t agree that the tabloid acted “dishonestly” by quoting only passages of the letter. But Markle's legal counsel is insisting that her rights were violated.

“The Duchess’ rights were violated; the legal boundaries around privacy were crossed,” law firm Schillings declared after the judge sided with Mail on Sunday on Markle’s claimed that it acted “dishonestly.”

Despite losing in that area, Markle’s lawyer vowed that her battle against the tabloid would “move forward,” Deadline reported.

“As part of this process, the extremes to which the Mail on Sunday used distortive, manipulative, and dishonest tactics to target the Duchess of Sussex have been put on full display,” the spokesperson said. “Whilst the judge recognizes that there is a claim for breach of privacy and copyright, we are surprised to see that his ruling suggests that dishonest behaviour is not relevant. Nonetheless, we respect the judge’s decision as the strong case against Associated will continue to focus on the issue of a private, intimate and hand-written letter from a daughter to her father that was published by The Mail on Sunday. This gross violation of any person’s right to privacy is obvious and unlawful, and The Mail on Sunday should be held to account for their actions.”

In April, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they would no longer be working with Daily Mail, Express, Mirror and The Sun. Prince Harry and Markle sent a letter to the four publications telling them that there would be “no collaboration and zero engagement” between them.

However, the Society of Editors denounced the couple’s move. According to executive director Ian Murray, the pair’s move “amounts to censorship.”

“By appearing to dictate which media they will work with and which they will ignore they, no doubt unintentionally, give succour to the rich and powerful everywhere to use their example as an excuse to attack the media when it suits them,” Murray said.