- Meghan Markle said she called her father “Daddy” in a letter knowing it could be leaked.
- Markle wrote in a text to a former helper, saying the word “would pull at the heartstrings.”
- The texts were read in England and Wales’ Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
Meghan Markle said in a text message to a former palace assistant that she called her father “Daddy” in a letter, knowing it could be leaked, reports The Telegraph’s royal correspondent Hannah Furness.
The Duchess of Sussex sent a draft letter to Jason Knauf, her former communications secretary at Kensington Palace, before sending it to her estranged father Thomas Markle in 2019, reports The Telegraph. Excerpts from the letter were published by the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday later that year.
Meghan sued the newspaper for misuse of private information, copyright infringement and violation of the Data Protection Act 2008 earlier this year. Text messages regarding the letter were read in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales on Wednesday, as the Mail on Sunday claims that the previous court ruling that it violated privacy and copyright laws should be appealed, according to The Telegraph.
Thomas Markle on Good Morning Britain.
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“Of course, everything I have worked out is with the understanding that it could be leaked, so I have been careful in my choice of words. But please let me know if anything stands out to you as a responsibility,” Meghan wrote to Knauf in texts read out in court, reports The Telegraph.
According to The Telegraph, another message read: “Given that I have only ever called him father, it may make sense to open up as such despite the fact that he is less than paternal. And in the unfortunate case that it leaked, it would draw on heartstrings. “
In a testimony from Meghan, which was given to Insider by her representatives, she said she did not want any part of the letter to be published. Speaking of the letter in her statement, Meghan said she “wanted to make sure the risk of it being manipulated or misleadingly edited was minimized.”
The Duchess added in the statement that she had rejected Knauf’s request to show the letter to Samantha Cohen, her private secretary at the time.
“This is important because Mrs. Cohen, as Private Secretary, was our most trusted and closest confidant next to Mr. Knauf,” Meghan wrote in the testimony. “Yet this letter was so private that I did not want its contents shared with anyone in my work environment, even though I felt obliged to make Mr Knauf aware of it.”
In a text message to Knauf, the Duchess said she “wore over every detail” of the letter, according to her statement.
“If he [Thomas Markle] delicious what is on his conscience, but at least the world will know the truth. Words I could never express in public, “the Duchess wrote in another text to Knauf, according to The Telegraph.
Knauf told the court that Meghan chose to write a letter instead of an email so it would not be forwarded and clipped and pasted, reports The Telegraph. According to the publication, Knauf said Meghan numbered the pages and deliberately ended each page halfway through a sentence so that “no page could be falsely presented as the end of the letter.”
Knauf added that Meghan made a change to the letter, reports The Telegraph after his proposal to mention his father’s health.
