Meghan Markle sues British newspaper

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has decided to sue a prominent British tabloid newspaper for publishing a private letter and pursuing a "media agenda" against her and her husband, Prince Harry.

The law firm representing Markle described the publication by the Mail on Sunday as part of a "campaign [...] to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories."


The action was announced in a statement by Prince Harry, in which he referenced the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.

Diana was hounded by photographers after her marriage to Harry's father, Prince Charles, and died in a car crash as she was pursued by paparazzi in Paris.

"My deepest fear is history repeating itself," Harry wrote. "I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."


In his statement, Harry criticised the British tabloid media in general for the treatment of his wife, which he describes as a "relentless propaganda" campaign, waged even when Markle was on maternity leave before the birth of the couple's son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, in May 2019.

"I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long. To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in," Prince Harry said.

"There comes a point when the only thing to do is to stand up to this behaviour, because it destroys people and destroys lives," he says.

"Put simply, it is bullying, which scares and silences people. We all know this isn’t acceptable, at any level. We won’t and can’t believe in a world where there is no accountability for this."


The legal action, which is being privately funded by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, claims privacy infringement, infringement of copyright and a "media agenda", which "is part of a campaign by this media group to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her, as well as her husband.

For its part, a spokesperson from the paper said: “The Mail on Sunday stands by the story it published and will be defending this case vigorously. Specifically, we categorically deny that the Duchess’s letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.”