News on Meghan and Harry

[Viviennemary]

Since they are in the news more or less daily why not a thread on this. Latest I've read over the last few days is that Meghan is going to produce a film from a book. And later this month she is teaming up with Michelle Obama for project on gender equality. Both sound interesting projects.

Yes. Quite a few commentators thought AN would settle. Hence headlines all round when they didn’t. It’s also been said that the Chancery judges award bigger damages than the Queens Bench judges who normally hear cases like this. When they got Justice Warby it was, apparently, not the judge they wanted. He’s the judge in charge of Media and Communication in the High Court QB division. So instead of a business expert on intellectual property they got a media expert.

Thomas allowed the letter to be published because he said her friends hadn’t been truthful about what was in the letter. She owns the copyright but he has ownership of the letter. She says printing the letter infringed her privacy.

I must say, Buttery this has baffled me too. He arranged some pap shots because he had been depicted unfavourably in the media, beer cans in hand, scruffily dressed and wanted to present a more positive image of himself. Is that so wrong?

He had to miss her wedding due to heart problems. TM's story re his health scare is entirely consistent with a close family member's experience re hospitalisation, discharge, and travel advice.

I've assumed I must be missing something significant because none of that seems enough to cut off a parent about whom MM had previously spoken so fondly.

@ButteryPuffin

What is it that Thomas Markle is deemed to have done that prompted Meghan to cut him off entirely? I know there were reports of him talking to the press but what is supposed to have been the final straw?

It seems there has been no communication since he fell ill before the wedding (apart from her letter afterwards which she said in the court papers was to stop his actions not an attempt at reconciliation).

She is claiming they tried to contact him multiple times after he said he couldn't come to the wedding and he didn't reply (I believe he was in hospital, I think AN will have evidence of this if he was). He is saying he did contact her. Some of the request for further information in this case is the text and call logs around that time. I think she mentioned in the claim about her dad not responding to her calls and now AN are gathering as much info about that as they can. I've learned no matter what you put in the claim, the defence will investigate it to the tiniest detail!

ButteryPuffin

What is it that Thomas Markle is deemed to have done that prompted Meghan to cut him off entirely? I know there were reports of him talking to the press but what is supposed to have been the final straw?

Yes, apparently he spoke to the press in the lead up to the wedding but if doesn’t explain why H didn’t meet TM in the 2 years before the wedding .

I was going to say that Harry never met Thomas so I would question if there was far more to it than we’ve been aware of. Also why did TM feel the need to talk to the press? I would have thought that in anticipation of the engagement and wedding, TM would have been as supported and advised as Doria was. Unless Meghan had already fallen out with him, there seems no reason for him not to have been protected from the media and to have met Harry.

He had baggage though, didn’t he. The rest of her estranged family.

Blimey I haven't got round to reading the full defence yet but on looking for the text message stuff I came across this. What I haven't seen is MM response to this, if it is denied or not. But it's building a picture on why AN are strenuously defending themselves.

If anyone in my family was rushing into a marriage with someone and hadn't met their parent, that would raise so many red flags for me. Particularly as Harry had no limitations with getting time off or paying for a flight.

@Blossom513

Blimey I haven't got round to reading the full defence yet but on looking for the text message stuff I came across this. What I haven't seen is MM response to this, if it is denied or not. But it's building a picture on why AN are strenuously defending themselves.

As I’ve said before, even if she wins on a technicality she won’t win overall as her reputation (and others involved) will be really tainted by all of this.

It won’t be won on a “technicality”. Whatever that means? It will be a closely argued case on points of law. It’s likely to get a very experienced judge who will get to the finer legal points not “get out of jail” minor issues.

@My0My

It won’t be won on a “technicality”. Whatever that means? It will be a closely argued case on points of law. It’s likely to get a very experienced judge who will get to the finer legal points not “get out of jail” minor issues.

I mean the technicality or copyright but not won in terms of all kinds of events and statements coming into the public domain.

MM will not have any difficulty giving evidence. H is a different matter. If required to give evidence, which he might, they will tie him in knots.

I think they have now got the anonymity that they craved.

@My0My

It won’t be won on a “technicality”. Whatever that means? It will be a closely argued case on points of law. It’s likely to get a very experienced judge who will get to the finer legal points not “get out of jail” minor issues.

It’s already been allocated to Mr Justice Warby hasn’t it?

As I’ve said before, even if she wins on a technicality she won’t win overall as her reputation (and others involved) will be really tainted by all of this.

If she wins on a technicality is it likely that she would be dealt the humiliation of a nominal £1 damages award?

I'm trying to remember which big libel case ended that way. And no awards for costs. Totally ruinous.

I agree wholeheartedly @ARoseInHarlem.

I think much of what people feel about MM is not hatred, but disappointment. Here was a woman with so much potential for the RF, hard working, energetic, driven, a social conscience, nice looking - hardly a disadvantage, and to top it all someone who at last reflected the diversity of the people of the UK. But the vital component of a commitment to service and duty was missing.

In the world she came from and has returned to, she could go far. And she deserves to. But in a world where she would always expected to put Queen and country first, it was never going to work.