A front-page statement by The Mail On Sunday about Meghan Markle’s privacy case win is on hold, to allow the newspaper’s publisher time to seek permission to appeal.
Last month, the Duchess of Sussex won her case over the publication of a letter to her estranged father Thomas.
The former Suits star sought damages from Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.
Mr Justice Warby granted Meghan “summary judgement” in her claim for misuse of private information in a High Court judgement, and ANL were initially refused permission to appeal against that decision.
The publisher was ordered to print a statement on its front page and a notice on page three of the paper stating it “infringed Meghan’s copyright” by publishing parts of a “personal and private” letter to her father.
At a hearing earlier today, Mr Justice Warby said ANL had also applied for permission to appeal against his order requiring The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline to publish the statements.
The judge refused ANL permission to appeal, but granted a “stay” of the order requiring publication of the statements “only until the matter has been decided by the Court of Appeal”.
At a remote hearing earlier this month, Meghan was granted an interim £450k as payment towards her £1.5million legal costs.
The Mail On Sunday were ordered to print “on a single occasion a statement on the front page”, which refers readers to a further statement on page three of the newspaper, while the MailOnline were ordered to publish the statement “for a period of one week” with a hyperlink to the full judgment.
The statement will read: “The court has given judgment for the Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement.”
“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 MailOnline.”
“There will be a trial of the remedies to which the duchess is entitled, at which the court will decide whether the duchess is the exclusive owner of copyright in all parts of the letter, or whether any other person owns a share.”
Mr Justice Warby said the “stay” of order would expire on 6 April, to give ANL time to apply directly to the Court of Appeal.
