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Meghan Markle wins bid for front page statement in High Court case

The ruling took place on Friday

meghan copyright case
Danielle Stacey
Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
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The High Court has ruled that The Mail on Sunday must publish a front page statement about the Duchess of Sussex's victory in her copyright case against the newspaper over the publication of a "personal and private" letter to her estranged father. 

Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) – the publisher of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline – has also been ordered to print a notice on page three of the paper stating it "infringed her copyright" by publishing parts of the letter sent to Thomas Markle.

In a ruling on Friday, Lord Justice Warby also granted Meghan a declaration that ANL "misused her private information and infringed her copyright".

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The judge ordered that The Mail On Sunday must print "on a single occasion a statement on the front page", which refers readers to a further statement on page three of the newspaper.

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."

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meghan markle© Photo: Getty Images

Meghan was granted a summary judgment in a ruling in February

Lord Justice Warby also ordered ANL to publish the statement on MailOnline "for a period of one week" with a hyperlink to his full judgment.

At Tuesday's remote hearing, the Duchess was granted an interim £450,000 as payment towards her £1.5m legal costs in her privacy case against ANL. 

It followed Meghan's "comprehensive win" against ANL, whom she sued over five articles published in February 2019, which reproduced parts of a "heartfelt" handwritten letter sent to her estranged father Thomas Markle.

At Tuesday's hearing, Lord Justice Warby also dismissed an application by ANL for permission to appeal against last month's ruling, saying it had "no real prospect" of success.

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