British tabloid quietly publishes court-ordered apology to Meghan Markle, promises 'financial remedies'

British tabloid the Mail on Sunday quietly published a court-ordered apology to Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, on Sunday, three years after the Mail published excerpts of a private letter she wrote to her father after marrying Prince Harry in 2018. The 64-word apology, headlined "The Duchess of Sussex," was printed on the bottom of the Mail on Sunday's front page and published at Mail Online late Christmas night.

"Following a hearing on 19-20 January 2021, and a further hearing on 5 May 2021, the court has given judgment for the Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement," the article said. "The court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in the Mail on Sunday and in Mail Online. Financial remedies have been agreed."

High Court Judge Mark Warby had ruled against Associated Newspapers, the Mail on Sunday's publisher, earlier this year, and an appellate court threw out the tabloid's challenge earlier this month, agreeing that Markle "had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter. Those contents were personal, private, and not matters of legitimate public interest." Markle quickly declared victory "not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what's right," and called for an overhaul of Britain's "cruel" and mendacious tabloid industry.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Mail on Sunday did get one minor win in court, The Guardian reports. In March, Warby "agreed that the font size could be smaller than that asked for by the duchess."