The Duchess of Sussex will
receive just £1 in damages from the Mail on Sunday after
winning her privacy case against the newspaper for publishing a private letter
she had sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in 2018.
The
Guardian reports that the nominal
sum is set out in court documents, which also confirm that the newspaper and
its sister website MailOnline will not take the case to a
Supreme Court appeal.
It
reports that the outlet will also pay an unspecified sum for the separate case
of infringing Meghan’s copyright by publishing large parts of the letter.
The
Duchess, 40, sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), over five articles that
reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter to Thomas Markle,
77, in August 2018.
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| The Duchess released a statement after the ruling |
The Guardian adds that the newspaper’s publisher,
ANL, has also agreed to pay a confidential sum in damages for copyright
infringement. In addition, the Mail on Sunday also faces
covering Meghan’s legal costs, which could amount to more than £1m.
The Mail on Sunday printed a front-page apology on 26
December – as ordered by the courts – acknowledging that the Duchess won her
copyright claim against the newspaper’s publisher.
The
judges ruled in favour of the Duchess earlier in 2021 and a challenge from
ANL was dismissed last month.
Meghan released a powerful statement, in
which she said: “This is a victory
not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s
right. While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is
that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that
conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create.
From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of
right versus wrong.”
