U.K. tabloid must run front-page statement on Meghan Markle’s legal win, judge rules

LONDON —  A British judge has ordered the Mail on Sunday to publish a front-page statement highlighting the duchess of Sussex’s legal victory over the newspaper for breaching her copyright by publishing parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father.

High Court justice Mark Warby said Friday that publisher Associated Newspapers must also run the statement on the MailOnline website for a week, with a link to his earlier judgment in the case.

The former actress Meghan Markle, 39, sued the publisher for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement over five February 2019 articles that reproduced large portions of a letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, after her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018.

The judge ruled last month that the publisher had misused the duchess’ private information and infringed her copyright. He said the duchess “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private” and concluded that the paper’s publication of large chunks of it was “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful.”

Associated Newspapers says it plans to appeal the ruling.

The judge did not order the publisher to mention the privacy issue in its front-page statement, saying that media coverage of the case had already “given wide publicity to the claimant’s unequivocal success on the privacy claim.”

Meghan, a former star of the American TV legal drama “Suits,” married Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born the following year. They are now expecting their second child.

The couple has recorded a much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey that is due to be broadcast Sunday.