Devastating price Meghan Markle has paid for court victory

She might have been victorious in her crusade for justice but the devastating personal cost to Meghan will surely be felt for decades.

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“Healing the rift.” Over the last year, if there is one phrase that has been used ad nauseam when it comes to Princes William and Harry, a phrase dragged out time and time again as the state of the bond between the two men has been debated and picked over, it is “healing the rift”. Could they? Will they? Have they?

Underpinning those three simple words is the fact – or at least the hope – that the two men will somehow eventually rebuild their fractured relationship after, allegedly, years of disagreements and tension.

However, that question – when will things get better? – is one that Meghan Duchess of Sussex seems unlikely to ever face when it comes to her estranged father Thomas Markle and half-sister Samantha Markle.

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Thomas Markle and his daughter Meghan. Picture: Thomas Markle: My Story

In the early hours of Friday morning, Judge Mark Warby handed her a courtroom victory over The Daily Mail’s parent company, with the case hinging on an emotional letter she had written to her father in 2018.

In making the ruling, Mr Justice Warby said that the “majority of what was published was about the claimant’s own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father’s behaviour, as she saw it, and the resulting rift between them”.

“These are inherently private and personal matters,” he said.

What the ruling means (though the question over who owns the copyright of the letter is yet to be legally determined) is that Meghan has come out on top, not only having the matter resolved in her favour but also saving both she and the palace from the prospect of a trial later in the year.

The Duchess responded to the decision with an unusually personal statement saying “we have all won” and “we all lose when misinformation sells more than truth, when moral exploitation sells more than decency, and when companies create their business model to profit from people’s pain”.

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Meghan was victorious in her court case against the Mail on Sunday. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

However, for the mum-of-one, it is a bittersweet victory and while she might have won her case, the 39-year-old has paid a high personal price in her fight for justice.

Over the course of approximately 12 months of the public legal wrangling, the disintegration of Meghan’s relationship with her father has been put on full, heart-breaking public display.

Text messages included in court papers from her lawyers paint a poignant picture of what was going on in the wake of the revelation that Thomas had staged paparazzi shots in the days before her fairytale 2018 wedding to Harry including her writing, “I’ve called and texted but haven’t heard back from you so hoping you’re OK.”

Elsewhere, it was revealed that Harry had texted his future father-in-law imploring him to get in contact, saying, “If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me.”

Even the stoniest of hearts must surely be moved by such affecting pleas.

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Thomas Markle and his daughter Meghan. Picture: Thomas Markle: My Story

Meghan Markle with her parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland. Picture: Thomas Markle: My Story

More recently, via his witness statement, Thomas accused his daughter of showing “no concern” for his health and claimed that she had allegedly “shut (him) out”. Of the original letter from Meghan at the centre of the case, the former lighting designer said that the five-page missive “actually signalled the end of our relationship, not a reconciliation”.

It is hard to see how any person, faced with their father’s decidedly shoddy treatment of them splashed across front pages the world over, a father seemingly willing to take critical aim at their child via the court, could not cause deep hurt.

While Mr Justice Warby will rule on costs in March, what cannot be so easily quantified is the emotional cost of having pursued this case for Meghan. At this point, it is hard to see how her and Thomas’ relationship can ever truly come back – or substantially heal.

No matter how much Meghan might win monetarily, with estimates that she could be awarded many hundred of thousands of pounds, and no matter that with this lawsuit she has, single-handedly, established a significant legal beachhead for royal privacy, what could under the damage this case might have wrought?

If the California-based royal had ever entertained notions that one day she and her father would be able to repair the once-strong relationship, the events of the last year seems likely to have made that into an Everest-like task.

Here we get to the $44,000 question, which just happens to be how much, allegedly, Thomas earned from his staged paparazzi shots, and which is, how will the seemingly perpetually aggrieved 76-year-old and Meghan’s half-sister and perennial critic Samantha, react to Friday’s developments?

Based on previous form, the chances of the duo deciding to adopt a posture of dignified silence seems about as likely as the Queen stepping out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony in a tracksuit while cradling a quadruple gin while attempting to floss.

Samantha Markle has also been outspoken about her half-sister Meghan.

Going forward, there seems to be little chance that Thomas and Samantha, who recently published a book about Meghan called The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1, are suddenly going to clam up instead of, based on their previous form, taking every opportunity to sprout their bilious hate whenever a microphone is in their vicinity.

While legal matters might be drawing to a close in London, it is doubtful that this represents any sort of final chapter or denouement to the Markle Family Saga.

The bottom line here is that despite Meghan’s legal success, what remains to be seen is whether she will ever truly get any respite from two of her closest family members hawking their bitterness and resentment to the media.

There is one thing that I think we can say with absolute certainty though after this ruling: In deciding to pursue this case, the duchess has proven she has a titanium backbone and is willing to put so much on the line in the quest to do what she believes is right.

After this week it is crystal clear why Prince Charles is reported to have admiringly nicknamed her ‘Tungsten’ because of her personal strength.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.