Meghan Markle’s Front Page Daily Mail Statement Paused as Tabloid Seeks to Appeal in Copyright Case

The Mail on Sunday won’t have to print a statement from Meghan Markle on its front page just yet, despite being ordered to do so by a U.K. court.

Markle had sued Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, for publishing articles that in 2018 reproduced parts of a letter she had sent to her father Thomas Markle, on the grounds that they misused private information, infringed copyright and breached the Data Protection Act.

In February, a U.K. High Court ruled in favor of Markle, saying that she had “reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private.” Earlier this month, the court also required The Mail on Sunday to publish a front page statement acknowledging the judgement.

However, the statement is temporarily on hold as Associated Newspapers has been granted a stay until April 6 to submit to a Court of Appeal against the judgement.

If published, the statement should 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.”

Associated Newspapers is also required to carry the statement for a week on MailOnline.

The development comes in the wake of a bombshell interview given by Markle and Prince Harry to Oprah Winfrey, where, among other things, racism and mental health were discussed.

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