Meghan Markle’s lawyers have claimed Finding Freedom, a book about Meghan and Prince Harry’s life, contains “inaccurate” information.
The Duchess of Sussex was forced to deny claims she co-operated with the book’s authors earlier this week, after the biography was dragged into her legal battle against Associated Newspapers.
Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the UK Mail on Sunday, for printing a “private and confidential” letter she sent her estranged father Thomas Markle in 2018.
The mother-of-one is seeking damages from Associated Newspapers Ltd for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.
During a High Court hearing in London on Monday, Associated Newspapers Ltd. submitted an application to amend their defense in light of Finding Freedom’s publication.
Anthony White, the lawyer for Associated Newspapers, said in written submissions that the book appeared to have been written with Meghan and Prince Harry’s “extensive cooperation.”
ANL’s legal team argued the book “contains a great deal of detailed information about (Meghan’s) personal life, including a number of passages referring to her relationship and communications with her father, and a section referring to the letter which is at the heart of this case.”
Court submissions claim that if Meghan “provided extensive cooperation to the authors and permitted a detailed account of her private life, relationships, thoughts and feelings to be published, including references to her relationship and communications with her father, it is difficult to see how she can complain that the Letter should not have been published because ‘it contained the Claimant’s deepest and most private thoughts and feelings.’”
Responding to ANL’s application, Meghan’s lawyers denied that she co-operated with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand on Finding Freedom, which was published last month.
In a written submission, Justin Rushbrooke QC said: “The claimant and her husband did not collaborate with the authors on the book, nor were they interviewed for it, nor did they provide photographs to the authors for the book.”
Omid Scobie also submitted a witness statement to the High Court, and denied allegations that Meghan helped with the book.
Scobie confirmed he has spoken to Meghan and Harry “on occasions in the past” as a royal correspondent, but “never about the book.”
According to a new report by the Daily Mail, Meghan’s lawyers backed up claims she had nothing to do with the book by stating Finding Freedom contains “inaccurate” information about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
In court papers, one of Meghan’s lawyers Jenny Afia said the authors of Finding Freedom relied on creative licence to produce the biography.
She branded many of the book’s anecdotes as “either extremely anodyne and/or I understand are the product of creative licence and/or are inaccurate”.
Miss Afia included examples of inaccurate stories – including claims Meghan and Harry stayed at the Meno A Kwena safari camp on the edge of Makgadikgadi Pans national park in Botswana.
She said Meghan “has never visited nor been on safari to the Makgadikgadi Pans” and the couple “have never been together to Meno A Kwena – only the Duke of Sussex has”.
Meghan’s lawyer also said details about their first date in the book are incorrect, and rubbished claims Prince Harry texted his father after Meghan gave birth to their first child, Archie, last year.
In a written statement, she wrote: “I understand that it is widely known that the Prince of Wales does not have a mobile phone.”
Miss Afia also dismissed the book’s account of Prince Harry meeting Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland in Los Angeles for the first time.
She wrote: “I understand that in fact the Duke of Sussex did not meet Meghan’s mother for the first time in Los Angeles. Indeed, the first time he and the duchess were ever in Los Angeles together was in 2020 when they relocated with their son.”
Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie declined to comment when contacted by Goss.ie.
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