Meghan Markle tries to avoid witness box in court case

Meghan Markle is pushing for a summary judgment in her case against newspapers that printed letters from her father.

(Meghan Markle, Picture: Michele Spatari/AFP)

The Duchess of Sussex has applied for a judge to rule in her legal action against The Mail on Sunday without the need for a trial.

Lawyers for the duchess will argue in court on Thursday for a summary judgment that would mean she could avoid going into the witness box.

The duchess is requesting a postponement of the trial if her application for summary judgment is unsuccessful.

Meghan, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers, publisher of The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, in the High Court over an article from February last year that reproduced parts of a handwritten letter sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, 76.

A hearing to consider costs and case management issues was due to take place on Thursday before a ten-day trial in January. However, Mr Justice Warby will hear an application by the duchess for summary judgment instead. The first part of the hearing will be in private.

A source close to the duchess said she had “an overwhelmingly strong case”. They said: “We do not believe that the defence’s case has a chance of succeeding and do not believe there is a compelling reason for trial. We are confident in our case and therefore believe it should be determined on a summary basis.”

This would involve the judge making a ruling based on the cases submitted on paper by both sides without the need for witnesses or further evidence. Legal experts speculated that the duchess might be seeking to avoid going into the witness box, where she would be cross-examined. It is also possible that her father could be called as a witness if there is a full trial.

When the Prince of Wales sued The Mail on Sunday in 2006 over the publication of a leaked journal in which he described the Chinese leadership as “appalling old waxworks”, he successfully applied for a summary judgment. The judge ruled in Charles’s favour.

The duchess’s lawyers are also seeking permission to appeal against the ruling that The Mail on Sunday can rely on Finding Freedom, a biography of the duchess published in August, in its defence. The newspaper says she co-operated with the authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, to set out a version of events favourable to her. The duchess denies collaborating with the authors.

If that appeal is unsuccessful, they will seek a postponement of the trial in order to prepare their case with Finding Freedom included.

The duchess is suing over five articles, two in The Mail on Sunday and three on Mail Online, which reproduced parts of a letter she sent to her father in August 2018. The headline of one article read: “Revealed: The handwritten letter showing true tragedy of Meghan’s rift with father she says has ‘broken her heart into a million pieces’.”

The duchess is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

Associated Newspapers denies the allegations.

Meanwhile, a survey found that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s popularity with the public had fallen this year. A YouGov poll this month asked 1,626 people whether they had a positive or negative opinion about members of the royal family. Harry’s negative rating stood at 47 per cent, up from 35 per cent in March, while 59 per cent felt negatively about Meghan, up from 46 per cent. Only 33 per cent held a positive opinion of her, down from 38 per cent in March.

However, 83 per cent had a positive opinion of the Queen, 80 per cent were positive about Prince William, and 76 per cent about the Duchess of Cambridge.

The Times