Bow down to the Duchess of Sussex. A British tabloid published a statement Sunday heralding its own defeat in a legal battle waged by Meghan, against its parent company Associated Newspapers.
Atop the front page of Britain’s the Mail on Sunday was a sentence acknowledging that the former Meghan Markle won “her legal case for copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers for articles published in The Mail on Sunday and posted on Mail Online.”
The Mail on Sunday printed the notice nearly eight months after a British judge ordered the publication to do so, as part of its punishment for infringing the duchess’ copyright by publishing excerpts of a private letter she wrote to her estranged father.
A brief report on Meghan’s victory also appeared in the upper-left corner of Sunday’s third page and on the Mail Online website:
“Following a hearing on [January 19 and 20, 2021], and a further hearing on [May 5 2021], the Court has given judgment for the Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement,” it read.
“The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in the Mail on Sunday and on Mail Online. Financial remedies have been agreed.”
The actor-turned-duchess sued Associated Newspapers in 2019 for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement after the Mail on Sunday released a substantial portion of the emotional missive she penned to her father, Thomas Markle, upon wedding Britain’s Prince Harry in 2018.
The letter contained personal details about Meghan’s relationship with her father and conveyed the duchess’ anguish over public statements her father made about her.
In February, High Court Justice Mark Warby ruled that the publisher had misused the duchess’ private information. He contended that Meghan “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private” and deemed Associated Newspaper’s actions “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful.”
Festive time
Meanwhile, Meghan and Prince Harry just celebrated their first Christmas with their daughter Lilibeth, sharing her picture as part of a family holiday card.
The couple also unveiled a series of donations in a holiday card released Thursday with a heavy emphasis on lobbying for federal paid family leave in the US.
The card lists a number of organisations that received donations from Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Foundation. “As we look forward to 2022, we have made donations on your behalf to several organizations that honor and protect families — from those being relocated from Afghanistan, to American families in need of paid parental leave,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wrote. They did not reveal how much they gave in total or to each group.
