Meghan Markle Denies She Collaborated With 'Finding Freedom' Authors as Book Is Brought Into Legal Battle
The Duchess of Sussex’s privacy case against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday has taken another new turn as biography Finding Freedom has been brought into the legal battle. A hearing was held at the High Court in London today, which included an application from Associated Newspapers Ltd. to amend their defense in light of the publication of the book.
In written submissions to the court, the publisher said that it was seeking to expand its existing pleaded case by incorporating new information alleging that Meghan co-operated with the book’s authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. The papers outline allegations that the Duchess “caused or permitted information to be provided directly or indirectly to, and co-operated with, the authors of the Book, including by giving or permitting them to be given information about the Letter, before the publication of the Articles complained about; and giving or permitting them to be given a great deal of other information about her personal life, in order to set out her own version of events in a way that is favourable to her.”
They describe the book as “focussing on events in their lives, including their private lives, since their relationship began and which gives the appearance of having been written with their extensive co-operation.” And the newspaper group says that the book contains “a number of passages referring to her relationship and communications with her father, and a section referring to the Letter which is at the heart of this case.”
The Duchess is suing Associated Newspapers Limited for the alleged breach of privacy, infringement of copyright, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 after it published extracts of a letter she wrote to her father. The Mail on Sunday published the extracts following an interview that five of Meghan’s friends gave to People magazine where one of them mentioned the existence of the letter. Thomas Markle subsequently said in the newspaper that he allowed them to publish the parts of the letter to “defend” himself following its portrayal in the People interview. Meghan has repeatedly claimed in previous court documents that she did not know about the People interview in advance and would not have consented to the letter being mentioned had she been aware.
Now Associated Newspapers Ltd. is seeking to argue that Meghan co-operated with Finding Freedom and that this is relevant when it comes to her expectation of privacy. Its court submissions claim that if Meghan “provided extensive cooperation to the authors and permitted a detailed account of her private life, relationships, thoughts and feelings to be published, including references to her relationship and communications with her father, it is difficult to see how she can complain that the Letter should not have been published because 'it contained the Claimant’s deepest and most private thoughts and feelings.'”
However, in submissions to the court today, Meghan’s legal team made clear that she “and her husband did not collaborate with the authors on the Book, nor were they interviewed for it, nor did they provide photographs to the authors for the Book.” Her legal team also claim that “neither the Claimant nor her husband spoke to the authors 'for the purposes of the Book.'”
The Duchess and her lawyers are asking the court to refuse the application to amend the defense, arguing “when properly analysed, the proposed new case must be refused because it is bad in law, manifestly lacking in proper particulars or a proper evidential basis, riddled with factual inaccuracies, and can be seen to be shadowy and lacking in bona fides.”
In their submissions, Meghan’s legal team says: “The proposition that by causing or permitting such information to be published in a Book the Claimant had forfeited her right to privacy in respect of the highly sensitive contents of the Letter should not be one that the Court takes seriously.” They also point out that letters are a “peculiarly intimate aspect of a person’s private life. Very strong reasons would be needed to deprive the contents of a letter of this kind of its private character, going beyond the mere sharing of (for example) a brief description of the letter, or of other personal information relating to other aspects of the claimant’s life.”
Finding Freedom co-author Omid Scobie has written a witness statement as part of the case and the newspaper says it is seeking to “test Mr Scobie’s evidence in cross-examination.” The trial is provisionally scheduled to start on January 11, 2021. Total legal costs for the case have been estimated at almost £3 million.
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