Meghan Markle is Awarded Just £1 in Damages from Mail on Sunday Lawsuit

Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, arrive to the I
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Nathaniel Charles

Meghan Markle will be paid just £1 ($1.30) in a court settlement against the Mail on Sunday.

Meghan Markle — actress turned Royal who played a lawyer in the drama series ‘Suits’ — will be awarded just £1 in damages by Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) who own the Mail on Sunday after they illegally published a private letter to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

The British court of appeal on the 2nd of December upheld an earlier ruling that ANL invaded Ms Markle’s privacy by printing the letter, and dismissed their claims that the letter was leaked “in the public’s interest”, the Daily Mail reports.

In the UK, journalists are allowed to bypass copyright and privacy laws if the information is deemed to be in the public’s interest, however, Ms Markle’s personal letters were not considered to be “matters of legitimate public interest”, by appeal Judge Sir Geoffrey Vos.

After initially losing to Markle in February 2021, ANL argued that the case should go to trial, but the original decision was upheld in the court of appeal in December 2021.

The Duchess of Sussex would have been keen to avoid a trial as it would have meant, she, Prince Harry, her father as well as a multitude of other people would have potentially been publicly cross-examined about their private life.

Despite only having to pay a nominal sum, the Mail on Sunday will however be expected to pay Ms Markle’s legal fees, which span over three years and are likely to be over £1 million ($1,354,800).

Speaking to the Guardian media lawyer Mark Stephens, said the £1 settlement implied a weakness in Meghan’s case: “Normally for that kind of invasion of privacy you would expect £75,000 to £125,000 [$100-175k]. It does show that the curation of her reputation was an area where she had effectively invaded her own privacy.”

The Duchess of Sussex has however declared victory saying after the ruling last month: “This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right”.

After their initial loss, the courts also ordered the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online to publish declarations they lost the case on their front page The outlets did this on Boxing Day 2021, one of the quietest days of the year for news.

The Mail on Sunday printed a small statement along the bottom of the front page that said: ‘The Duchess of Sussex wins her legal case for copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers for articles published in The Mail on Sunday and posted on Mail Online – SEE PAGE 3′ and the Mail Online’s website posted a similar message.

Additionally to the £1 settlement and legal fees, ANL has agreed to pay Ms Markle a confidential sum to avoid going to court over infringing her copyright when they published the letters.

On the 3rd of December 2021, a day after the Mail on Sunday lost its court appeal against Markle, the British government insisted that a “free press is one of the cornerstones of any democracy” and promised to “carefully” study the “implications and judgement” of the case.

In response to the outcome of the case, ANL have said: “We are very disappointed by the decision of the Court of Appeal. It is our strong view that judgment should be given only on the basis of evidence tested at trial.” ANL has, however, accepted the outcome of the case and won’t be pursuing it any further.

Martin Clarke, editor-in-chief of the Mail Online, resigned the day after the result of the case was announced.

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