Meghan Markle’s Lawsuit Against British Tabloid Shares New Insight Into Relationship With Dad Thomas Markle

Meghan Markle’s privacy lawsuit against a British tabloid kicked off in the United Kingdom’s High Court on Friday.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing the Mail on Sunday, Mailonline and their parent company, Associated Newspapers, over five articles which published parts of a private letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018. The civil lawsuit accuses the newpaper of copyright infringement, misuse of private information & violating the U.K.’s data protection law. Meghan’s legal team are seeking damages for misuse of private information and breach of her copyright, alleging the tabloids harassed both parties which was instrumental in their fallout.

Associated Newspapers denies the allegations, including the claim that Meghan’s letter was edited to alter its meaning. The outlet also applied to have nine articles struck from Meghan’s privacy claim.

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Meghan and Harry listened remotely from Los Angeles at 4 a.m., as her lawyer, David Sherborne, plead their case to the judge in the virtual hearing, representatives for the Sussexes confirmed to NBC News.

Sherborne, who specializes in privacy, confidentiality and defamation cases, claimed the publication printed only parts of Meghan’s letter, though the Mail on Sunday claimed it was the full letter. Meghan’s lawyer stated the publication “chose to deliberately omit or suppress parts of the letter in a highly misleading and dishonest manner” “even cutting out words in the middle of a sentence or whole sentences out of a paragraph” in a “calculated attempt” to portray the Duchess of Sussex in a “negative light”.

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Meghan’s lawyer also claimed that the publication stirred up a “dispute” between the Duchess and her father, causing a “rift” between them. Sherborne accused Associated Newspapers of “meddling” in the father-daughter relationship. The attorney said that Thomas Markle told Meghan that “he was being harassed and humiliated by the defendant and tabloid newspapers but particularly the mail” and the articles were full of “lies and bulls**t.” Sherborne relayed to the court that the Duchess hasn’t spoken to her father since she and Harry were married in May 2018.

Lawyers for the publication argued that given Meghan’s royal status at the time established that there was a legitimate public interest in her relationship with her father and Thomas had the right to make his side public.

The hearing wrapped up just after 4 p.m. BST, with the judge saying he would be reserving judgment for now, but gave no time frame for when he would issue a ruling.