Meghan Markle Sought Help To Write Letter To Dad, Court Documents Claim

Meghan Markle has to prove that she really owns all the content in the letter she sent to her dad that Mail on Sunday published, according to the court documents filed by the defendant's lawyers.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing Mail on Sunday's publisher Associated Newspapers after the tabloid published her private letter. Markle claimed that the publication was a misuse of her private information. But the British tabloid argued that the content in the letter was not solely Markle's.

The Telegraph obtained the court documents filed by Mail on Sunday alleging that Markle spent "several weeks" drafting the letter on her iPhone's "notes" application before carefully copying it out by hand. Also, she allegedly asked the help of the Kensington Palace press team, including then-communications secretary Jason Knauf, in composing the letter.

"It is for the Claimant to prove she was the only person who contributed to the writing of the Electronic Draft," Mail on Sunday's filing read.

"Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Defendant infers that Jason Knauf and/or others in the Kensington Palace Communications team contributed to the writing of the Electronic Draft. Precisely which parts were the result of such contribution is uniquely known to the Claimant, Jason Knauf and others in the team."

It also argued that the letter simply recites "pre-existing facts and admonishment" and is not Markle's "own intellectual creation." The tabloid also insisted that since the letter is not wholly original, Markle is not protected by copyright.

"The whole of the Letter comprises a recitation of facts both past and present, including the Claimant’s views as to her father and his conduct and an admonishment to him," the document added.

"The Defendant's case is all of those pre-existing facts and admonishment as such are not themselves part of any literary intellectual creation of the Claimant and therefore not original in the copyright sense.”

The 10-day trial for Markle's privacy case against the British publication was scheduled for January. However, the judge moved it at least nine months later after the duchess requested to delay it on confidential grounds. The delay sparked speculations that Markle is pregnant, but the Duke and Duchess of Sussex didn't address the pregnancy rumors.