Meghan Markle loses first round in newspaper lawsuit

LONDON (AP) — The Duchess of Sussex lost an early round in a London court Friday when a judge dismissed part of her lawsuit against the publisher of a British newspaper that put out excerpts of a letter to her estranged father.

Meghan sued Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement last year over a series of articles in the Mail on Sunday that reproduced parts of the letter she wrote in August 2018, several months after the former actress known as Meghan Markle married Britain’s Prince Harry.

In a ruling on Friday, Judge Mark Warby threw out some of the causes of action argued in her lawsuit, including the claim that the newspaper publisher acted “dishonestly” by quoting only certain passages of her letter.

Warby also struck the claim that Associated Newspapers deliberately “stirred up” a dispute between Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, and had an agenda to publish intrusive or offensive stories about her.

The judge said the allegations should not be part of the case as it proceeds because he found them irrelevant to establishing if the publisher was guilty of the illegal acts cited in the duchess’ lawsuit: misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

However, Warby said the dismissed claims could be revived at a later stage of the case.

Associated Newspapers denies the allegations.

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