MEGHAN MARKLE has applied to the High Court to prevent Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, from naming her five friends who spoke anonymously to a US magazine to defend her from “bullying”.
Meghan Markle has accused Associated Newspapers of “threatening” to publish the names of the five friends who spoke anonymously to People magazine about the Duchess of Sussex’ relationship with her father. In a strongly-worded statement filed by her legal team, the Duchess said the publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline is trying to “create a circus” as a distraction from the main focus of the High Court case.
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In a witness statement submitted as part of the application, Meghan Markle said: “Associated Newspapers, the owner of The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, is threatening to publish the names of five women – five private citizens – who made a choice on their own to speak anonymously with a US media outlet more than a year ago, to defend me from the bullying behaviour of Britain’s tabloid media.
“These five women are not on trial, and nor am I.
“The publisher of the Mail on Sunday is the one on trial.
“It is this publisher that acted unlawfully and is attempting to evade accountability; to create a circus and distract from the point of this case – that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully published my private letter.
“Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy.
“Both the Mail on Sunday and the court system have their names on a confidential schedule, but for the Mail on Sunday to expose them in the public domain for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain is vicious and poses a threat to their emotional and mental wellbeing.
“The Mail on Sunday is playing a media game with real lives.”
A source added revealing the names of these five friends would throw Meghan’s friends under the spotlight.
The source told royal author Omid Scobie: “Failure to protect these women would enable the Mail on Sunday to publish an exclusive story about their personal lives, thereby declaring open season for other tabloids and media outlets to follow suit.”
The identity of Meghan’s friends has been revealed by the Duchess herself in legal documents filed on June 30 after Associated Newspapers requested more information about her lawsuit.
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