Oct. 1 (UPI) — Britain’s duke and duchess of Sussex filed a lawsuit against a British tabloid and its publisher for publishing a private letter Meghan Markle wrote to her father, Prince Harry announced Tuesday.
Named in the lawsuit are the Daily Mail and its owner, Associated Newspapers.
Prince Harry said the news organization published a private letter Markle wrote to her estranged father without her consent. The Daily Mail printed the letter Feb. 9
The suit accuses the publication of misusing private information, infringing upon copyright and breaching the Data Protection Act of 2018.
In his statement, Prince Harry said the British tabloid press has waged a campaign against him and Markle over the past nine months — through her pregnancy and the birth of their son, Archie.
“The contents of a private letter were published unlawfully in an intentionally destructive manner to manipulate you, the reader, and further the divisive agenda of the media group in question,” Prince Harry said. “In addition to their unlawful publication of this private document, they purposely misled you by strategically omitting select paragraphs, specific sentences, and even singular words to mask the lies they had perpetuated for over a year.”
The Duke and Duchess are paying their legal fees and promise to donate any proceeds from damages awarded them to anti-bullying campaigns.
“There comes a point when the only thing to do is to stand up to this behaviour, because it destroys people and destroys lives,” Prince Harry said. “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.”
Prince Harry invoked the memory of his mother, Princess Diana, in his statement. She died in a 1997 car crash as her driver fled the paparazzi in Paris.
“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. “I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
