meghan front page

Meghan Markle's front-page statement from Mail On Sunday on hold

The latest judgment in the case was handed down on Monday

Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
March 22, 2021

A front-page statement in The Mail On Sunday about the Duchess of Sussex's victory in her copyright claim is on hold, to allow the newspaper's publisher time to seek permission to appeal.

Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline, was previously ordered to print a statement on its front page and a notice on page three of the paper stating it "infringed her copyright" by publishing parts of a "personal and private" letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

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Meghan, 39, sued ANL over a series of articles which reproduced parts of a "heartfelt" letter sent to Mr Markle, 76, in August 2018. She claimed for breach of copyright, infringement of her privacy and breaches of the Data Protection Act. 

In February, the Duchess was granted a summary judgment in a relation to her privacy claim, negating the need to go to trial for that part of the case. 

ANL were initially refused permission to appeal against that decision, but can still apply directly to the Court of Appeal.

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© Photo: Getty Images

Meghan was granted a summary judgment in her privacy case

In Monday's judgement, Lord Justice Warby said ANL had also applied for permission to appeal against his order requiring The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline to publish the statements.

The judge refused ANL permission to appeal, but granted a "stay" of the order requiring publication of the statements "only until the matter has been decided by the Court of Appeal".

Lord Justice Warby said the stay would expire on 6 April to give ANL time to apply directly to the Court of Appeal.

Earlier this month, the judge ordered that The Mail On Sunday must print "on a single occasion a statement on the front page", which refers readers to a further statement on page three of the newspaper.

Lord Justice Warby also ordered ANL to publish the statement on MailOnline "for a period of one week" with a hyperlink to his full judgment.

At a remote hearing on 2 March, the Duchess was also granted an interim £450,000 as payment towards her £1.5m legal costs.

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