Meghan Markle feared that her father would leak the letter that triggered the trial

AFP

Meghan Markle, 40, Prince Harry’s wife, feared that a letter she had sent to her father would leak to the press, according to the testimony of a former collaborator of the couple, this Wednesday (10), during the appeal trial of appeal for publication of such letter.

On the second day of the London trial hearing, the release of the statement by former communications secretary for Prince Harry and Meghan, Jason Knauf, was aimed at defending the popular tabloid The Mail on Sunday.

The widely circulated newspaper is appealing a lower court ruling that the publication of this private letter from Meghan to her father was “manifestly excessive and therefore illegal.”

In February, Meghan Markle won the tabloid lawsuit for violating her privacy. She accused the media outlet of having published a letter written in 2018, in which she asked her father, Thomas Markle, 77, to stop talking and lying to the media about the relationship between the two, which was broken.

In his testimony, Knauf said that Markle feared that his father would not respect the confidential nature of his exchanges of letters, as he collaborated with the press.

Thus, the draft of the letter was written thinking “that it might leak”, according to Knauf, “the Duchess then indicated to me that she recognized that it was possible” for her father “to make it public”.

For Andrew Caldecott, a lawyer at Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which publishes The Mail on Sunday, this testimony contradicts “the scenario that was presented to the judge”, according to which it was an “absolutely private letter written to be read exclusively by Mr. Markle”.

In turn, Meghan Markle’s lawyers argue that she decided to write the letter after discussing it with prominent members of the royal family, and that this was ignored by Knauf.

Prince Harry, sixth in the order of succession to the British throne, has frequently denounced the pressure exerted by the press on his wife. Examination of this resource is scheduled to continue through Thursday.