The Duchess of Sussex’s legal ding-dong with the Mail on Sunday (which published her private correspondence with her father) has been one of those battles where you regret it’s not possible for both sides to lose. But one side did lose, and it deserved to. Meghan was in the right.
I half wish she hadn’t been, if only so we didn’t have to read her statement after the court of appeal found in her favour. It managed the peculiar feat of crowing and simpering at the same time:
‘This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right. While this win is precedent setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create. From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong.’
The principle does hold: newspapers don’t get to publish the contents of private letters just because they think folk will get a giggle out of reading them.
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