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Meghan Markle has won a significant battle in the fight for her privacy. The Court of Appeal in Britain rejected the Mail on Sunday’s attempt to appeal the decision earlier this year that publishing a letter she wrote to her estranged father was a breach of her privacy.
She had started a civil action against the newspaper in 2019, and The Court of Appeal accepted the argument that the letter from August 2018 was “deeply personal”, and “private and not matters of legitimate public interest”.
Her father gave the letter to the Mail on Sunday, who published 585 of the 1,250 words in the letter in a number of articles.
In a statement released after the decision, Meghan said that “In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation and calculated attacks.”
She says that the decision is a victory for anyone who stands up for what is right, and wants to reshape a tabloid culture that “profits from the lies and pain that they create”.
The statement continues: “The courts have held the defendant to account and my hope is that we all begin to do the same. Because as far removed as it may seem from your personal life, it’s not. Tomorrow it could be you.
“These harmful practices don’t happen once in a blue moon – they are a daily fail that divide us and we all deserve better.”
In February 2021 the High Court ruled against the newspaper group, who were hoping they could overturn the decision through an appeal, however the judges in The Court of Appeal said the case was very clear cut, and an appeal would not change any of the existing evidence.
“The judge had correctly decided that, whilst it might have been proportionate to publish a very small part of the letter for that purpose [of public interest], it was not necessary to publish half the contents of the letter.”
Associated Newspapers, the group that owns the Mail on Sunday, says that it is disappointed with the decision, and is considering a further appeal in the Supreme Court.