Meghan Markle Wins Additional Copyright Claim Against U.K. Tabloid Over Letter to Her Father

In other news, the Duchess of Sussex is accused of plagiarizing British author Corrinne Averiss and Gabriel Alborozo’s 2018 book titled ‘The Boy on the Bench’ for her yet-to-be released children’s book ‘The Bench’.

AceShowbiz –
Meghan Markle once again came victorious in her legal battle against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online. According to a new report, the Duchess of Sussex won the last round of copyright claims over her personal letter to her father Thomas Markle.

A remote hearing at the High Court in London on Wednesday, May 5 ruled that the wife of Prince Harry was the sole copyright to the letter. She wrote the letter to her father in August 2018, months before her royal wedding to the British prince.

Prior to this, Associated Newspaper claimed that former Kensington Palace communications chief Jason Knauf owned part of the copyright as he co-wrote the letter. The tabloid also alleged that Jason saw an early version of the letter in addition to playing a role in its drafting. Jason, however, “emphatically” denied the co-author claims. On Wednesday, lawyers representing “the Keeper of the Privy Purse, acting on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen” also denied that the letter belonged to the Crown.

“Mr. Knauf did not draft, and has never claimed to have drafted, any parts of the electronic draft or the letter,” Meghan’s lawyers stated in official court documents released Wednesday. The docs also stated that the 39-year-old expecting duchess wrote the letter using the Notes application on her iPhone “around the first week of August 2018.”

In the docs, however, it was revealed that Meghan shared the draft with her husband and Jason “for support, as this was a deeply painful process that they had lived through with her and because Mr Knauf was responsible for keeping the senior members of the royal household apprised of any public-facing issues.” It was also said that while Jason gave “general ideas” of the letter, the correspondence “was the Duchess’s letter alone.”

Meghan filed a lawsuit against Associated Newspaper in 2019 for publishing extracts of the “private and confidential” letter to her dad in February 2019. In February of this year, High Court Judge Mark Warby ruled that Meghan “had a reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private,” adding “The Mail articles interfered with that reasonable expectation.”

In other news, Meghan was accused of plagiarizing British author Corrinne Averiss and Gabriel Alborozo’s 2018 book titled “The Boy on the Bench” for her yet-to-be released kids book “The Bench”. People also noted that the storyline was similar, while the artwork bore resemblance with the one artwork from Christian Robinson.

However, Corrinne quickly dismissed the claims. Defending the Duchess, she wrote on Twitter, “Reading the description and published excerpt of the Duchess’s new book, this is not the same story or the same theme as ‘The Boy on the Bench.’ I don’t see any similarities.”