MEGHAN Markle lost the first stage of her privacy case when a High Court judge ruled a swathe of her arguments were “embarrassing”, “vague” and “irrelevant”.
Lawyers tonight described her defeat as a “humiliation” and “a complete disaster”.
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Mr Justice Warby struck out allegations that Associated Newspapers, owners of the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, acted dishonestly and with a malicious agenda by publishing a letter she wrote to her father.
Her central claim — that publishing the letter breached privacy, copyright and data protection laws — is due to see her go face-to-face with dad Thomas later in the year.
In a written ruling, the judge said the allegations he was dismissing were “vague and lacking in particulars”.
He added: “The pleaded case as it stands is ‘embarrassing’ in the old sense that it places the defendant in an impossible position, whereby it cannot tell what case it has to meet.”
'COMPLETE DISASTER'
Outside court Mark Stephens, a partner at London law firm Howard Kennedy, said: “For Meghan this judgment is like a train ploughing into a petrol tanker on a level crossing.
“It is a complete disaster. She’s been humiliated today. Every complaint by Associated Newspapers has been completely and utterly vindicated by the judge.”
He added: ‘She would be well advised to settle and walk away. If it goes to trial, the evidence of Meghan and her father Thomas about the letter and their rift would be examined under oath.
"If she is going to be humiliated in person there will be no worse outcome for her.”
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Gavin Millar QC, of Matrix Chambers, said: “The case presented to the court was overblown.
"This is a simple claim about a letter and five articles — and cannot be turned into a mini public inquiry into Associated’s reporting about them.”
For Meghan this judgment is like a train ploughing into a petrol tanker on a level crossing.
Mark Stephens
But Schillings, whose celebrity barrister David Sherborne is representing Meghan, insisted: “Today’s ruling makes very clear that the core elements of this case do not change and will continue to move forward.
"The Duchess’s rights were violated — the legal boundaries around privacy were crossed.”
The ruling came a week after Meghan, 38, and husband Harry, 35, watched the opening arguments via video link from their new base in Los Angeles.
Meghan has not spoken to Thomas, 75, since before her wedding in May 2018. He did not attend after suffering a heart attack.
At the full hearing, lawyers will argue whether Meghan had a reasonable expectation her handwritten letter would be private despite friends revealing its contents.
She said she did not know the five pals had spoken to US magazine People — and could be questioned about this under oath.
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Associated Newspapers had offered not to charge their costs for the pre-trial hearing if Meghan dropped her opposition to strike out the claims, but she declined.
At the end of the case, the newspaper owners are now expected to ask her and Harry to pay their £50,000 legal fees on top the couple’s own £60,000 bill. The full hearing will send costs soaring further.
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