By Sheila Mckenzie-
A statement from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s communication Secretary, Jason Knauf, that Meghan Markle’s letter to her father was written in the knowledge it could be leaked, could impact the appeal by ANL publishers against The Duchess Of Sussex.
Meghan Markle successfully won her legal suit against ANL publishers in May for misuse of information and copyrightinfringement, after The Daily Mail Online published a letter the Duchess Of Sussex wrote to her father. The High Court ruled that the letter was private, and the publication of its content was in breach of her right to privacy.
This week, the court heard Meghan and Harry’s former communications secretary, Jason Knauf, provided information to Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durant, the authors of Finding Freedom about the book.
On Wednesday,(yesterday) a witness statement from Mr Knauf claimed that the letter Meghan had written to her father was done so in the knowledge that he might leak it. This claim could have a serious impact on how appeal judges rule the case.
In a witness statement, Mr Knauf said the book was “discussed on a routine basis”, including “directly with the duchess multiple times in person and over email”.
He also discussed planning a meeting with the authors to provide background information and said Meghan had given him several briefing points to share with them, including how she had “very minimal contact” with her half-siblings during her childhood.
Emails released as part of Mr Knauf’s statement showed he had emailed Harry to discuss the book and say he would meet the authors.
He said the duke replied: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it. Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some truths out there.”
The statement released by Mr. Knauf presents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as acting dishonestly, but also being naive in expressing that dishonesty in writing, ignoring the possibility it could be exposed at a future date.
Jason Knauf: Image: Tatler
Apology
Meghan’s witness statement, made public on Wednesday, led to an apology from her for misleading the court about whether Mr Knauf had provided information to the authors. She had previously stated to have had nothing to do with the book.
She said: “I accept that Mr Knauf did provide some information to the authors for the book and that he did so with my knowledge, for a meeting that he planned for with the authors in his capacity as communications secretary.
“The extent of the information he shared is unknown to me.
“When I approved the passage…I did not have the benefit of seeing these emails and I apologise to the court for the fact that I had not remembered these exchanges at the time.
“I had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court.”
Meghan, 40, said she would have been “more than happy” to refer to the exchanges with Mr Knauf if she had been aware of them at the time.
The duchess added they are “a far cry from the very detailed personal information that the defendant alleges that I wanted or permitted to put into the public domain”.
She also said she did not discover the emails between her and Mr Knauf sooner because the disclosure stage of the litigation had not yet been reached.
Last October ANL expressed a desire to reveal the identities of five of Meghan’s friends who gave an interview to US magazine People, in which they referred to her relationship with her father.
Revelaing their identities would have had no bearing on the confidentiality of Meghan’s letter to her father, but if Meghan Markle was happy for the letter to her father to be leaked, it contradicts her claim to have felt her privacy was intruded.
Meghan sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline, over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter sent to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.
In an appeal against The High Court’s ruling in favour of Meghan Markle last May, the inclusion that Jason Knauf’s claims Meghan wrote the letter to her father in the knowledge it may be leaked, makes a major difference to the entire case.
After the result, ANL was contacted by the source and the legal team then approached Mr Knauf, who at this point wanted to give evidence.
“He was a senior and trusted member of the royal household staff and he continues to occupy an important position as CEO of The Royal Foundation.
“His witness statement is measured in tone and he has been careful not to include evidence of matters beyond his own personal knowledge.
“Given the high profile nature of this litigation and the likelihood of his evidence (if admitted) being widely reported, as well as the position he holds, it is hardly conceivable that he would say anything he did not believe to be true and I know of nothing in his evidence which is subject to any reasonable challenge.”
Mr Knauf is due to stand down as CEO of the Royal Foundation at the end of thesis year.
Published Text Messages
Further details about the public row between the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex and the rest of the royal family, and with Thomas Markle Snr-Meghan’s dad, were made public through text mesages between Meghan Markle and her former communications secretary.
The messages between Meghan and the Sussexes’ secretary, Jason Knauf were also made public in light of this week’s appeal hearing.
One of those messages published on Friday, reveals the duchess’s frustrations towards the other royals, in which she claimed they “fundamentally don’t understand” her reasons for parting ways with her father and that she only wrote the letter to “protect my husband from this constant berating”.
The fall out between Meghan Markle and her father has been an ugly interference in the row between the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex and the royal family. It has been a sour addition to the story, one Meghan Markle’s critics say makes her look quite bad.