Prince Harry has announced legal action against ‘The Mail on Sunday’ for publishing one of the private letters written by Meghan Markle earlier this year.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex filed a suit against the Daily Mail’s parent company over what Prince Harry called a “ruthless campaign” that once invoked the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while she was being chased by paparazzi in Paris.
The royal family filed a claim against Associated Papers for the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act 2018, according to the law firm representing the couple.
In an emotional announcement released Tuesday, October 1st, 2019, Prince Harry said the “painful” impact of intrusive media coverage had driven him and his wife to take action
Referring to his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident while trying to escape paparazzi, the Prince Harry said his “deepest fear is history repeating itself”.
“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,” he said.
Harry accused the Mail of publishing a private letter from his wife “in an intentionally destructive manner” by editing out entire paragraphs to manipulate readers.
“There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been,” Harry said.
Though the couple did not name the exact letter in their statement, the Mail on Sunday published a handwritten letter from Markle to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in February.
However, 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,” a spokesman for the paper said.