A decision has been made in Meghan Markle’s lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the parent company that publishes the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail. She and her legal team made the case that her privacy and copyright had been violated when the Mail published contents of a letter that she’d written to her father, Thomas Markle. The judge has ruled in her favour without having to go to trial. This is a major win against a media outlet that has repeatedly attacked her for almost five years. Which means that they’re not going to go away quietly. There is already talk of appeal – and there is also, ironically, some misleading reporting about what exactly the judgement means. Again, it’s a total victory: 

 

The Daily Mail, of course, will likely try to undermine the way this development is represented, as they do. And, well, there’s little chance that they’ll actually start reporting accurately on Meghan going forward. I’m actually curious what they’re actually more annoyed about – losing the case or the case not going to trial which means they won’t be able to exploit all the details that would have come out of a trial. And I’m not sure money is that much of an issue for them. Two weeks ago they lost another case to Prince Harry and have to pay damages (which he’s donating to Invictus) after he sued them for lying about him turning his back on the Marines after stepping down as a senior royal. This of course is already on top of the legal fees they’ve been paying over the years over all the lawsuits, royal or otherwise, that they have to manage because they’ve f-cked with their reporting on so many people. You can read more about those cases at Byline Investigates. So to go back to the point, does the Daily Mail give a sh-t that people keep calling them out on being full of sh-t and they have to keep paying the penalty? Or do they give more of a sh-t about being able to carry on being full of sh-t? 

 

Meghan’s statement following her legal victory addresses exactly this: 

She mentions “precedent” here which is interesting and I wonder if this means that this may be bigger than just this case. And while we know that the Sussexes are obviously relieved and encouraged by this win, what about the other royals? There are many reasons why Harry and Meghan moved to LA and quit being senior royals – one of those is that they were not being supported by the institution; they were being sold out by viper courtiers and other staffers in the households, and some of those people did not ride with the Sussexes in their campaign against this publication. They were either all like, why spend the energy, you’re creating a bigger story about this than it needs to be, or outright dismissive of their grievances and, in some cases, leaking to the publication that Harry and Meghan were fighting so hard against. In other words, choosing a tabloid over family. 

What do you think their reaction is today? How will this court decision influence Daily Mail and royal relations going forward? And what does it say about all of it if that relationship continues…and is fruitful? If you were part of the family, would you feel betrayed?