The Duchess of Sussex’s father kept her explosive letter ‘totally private’ for six months, only releasing extracts after an ‘attack’ from his daughter’s friends in a US magazine, a court heard last week.
The claim that Thomas Markle was provoked into releasing details of the letter is central to a privacy case at the Court of Appeal, which last week heard a series of bombshell revelations as one of Meghan’s former aides supplied fresh evidence.
Jason Knauf, Meghan’s press secretary at the time, provided the court with emails and text messages which showed how she had sought his advice while composing the letter to her father.
Meghan wrote: ‘Obviously everything I have drafted is with the understanding that it could be leaked so I have been meticulous in my word choice but please let me know if anything stands out for you as a liability.’
She added: ‘If he leaks it then that’s on his conscience but at least the world will know the truth. Words I could never voice publicly.’
The Duchess of Sussex won a High Court privacy battle against The Mail on Sunday after we published extracts of the letter to her father. Associated Newspapers is now appealing to have the ‘summary judgement’ overturned in favour of a trial.
BEFORE THE RIFT: Meghan Markle with her father Thomas in 2011
During the three-day appeal hearing last week, it emerged that Meghan told her press aide that she had deliberately chosen to address the letter to ‘Daddy’ to ‘pull at the heartstrings’ of the public in the event that her father leaked it. Mr Knauf texted back: ‘The draft letter is very strong – enough emotion to be authentic, but all in resigned sadness rather than anger.’ He suggested a ‘few tweaks’ to the order of events that ‘could be a bit stronger – I think it’s slightly even worse than you remember... The only thing I think is essential to address in some way is the “heart attack”. That is his best opening for criticism and sympathy’.
Meghan texted Mr Knauf, who had saved the Duchess under the pseudonym ‘Tilly’ in his phone, saying: ‘My plan is to write it by hand and fedex it to [name redacted] who will then mail it to my father.’
In a statement to the court, Meghan said: ‘I went to considerable lengths to ensure that the Letter only went to my father, and that, in the event that it was intercepted or leaked, an eventuality I considered would be “unfortunate” if it happened, that its contents could not be manipulated or misleadingly edited.’
The messages highlight tensions within the family, with Meghan saying Harry, who she called ‘H’, was ‘constantly berated’.
After a visit to the Castle of Mey, where Meghan and Harry stayed with Charles and Camilla, Meghan wrote: ‘Even after a week with his dad and endlessly explaining the situation, his family seem to forget the context – and revert to “can’t she just go and see him and make this stop?” They fundamentally don’t understand, so at least by writing H will be able to say to his family “she wrote him a letter and he’s still doing it”. By taking this form of action, I protect my husband
