British newspaper agrees to compensate Meghan Markle after losing court battle

AFP

Britain’s Mail on Sunday tabloid has agreed to reach a settlement after Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle won the court battle over privacy violations, according to a court document released on Wednesday.

Associated Newspapers, the newspaper’s publisher, agreed to pay the former American actress £1 in damages for the misuse of private information, as well as an undisclosed sum for infringing her copyright.

According to a spokesperson for Markle, the amount is “significant” and will go to charities.

The Associated must also pay court fees before January 7, which amount to 300,000 pounds sterling (about R$2,320,419.30), according to a court document handed over by the publisher’s lawyers to journalists.

According to the BBC, this document formally confirms that the newspaper’s editor, who planned to appeal to the Supreme Court, accepts his defeat.

The 40-year-old former actress has filed legal action against The Associated for publishing excerpts from a letter sent to her father, Thomas Markle.

In the letter published in 2018, shortly after her marriage to Prince Harry, the Duchess asked her father to stop lying in the media about their breakup.

On December 2, the British justice found Meghan Markle right in rejecting the appeal presented by the British tabloid newspaper, which had been sentenced ten months earlier for publishing the letter.

Meghan and Harry left their royal duties in March of last year and currently live in California. They filed a series of legal actions against the media, alleging invasion of privacy.