Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, says she ‘transforms’ the tabloid media industry when it swings by ‘daily failure’

The Duchess of Sussex said she was “reshaping” the tabloid media industry, arguing that her lawsuit was “a victory for anyone who has ever been afraid to stand up for what is right”.

The Duchess won a lawsuit against The Mail On Sunday on Thursday over the publication of a personal letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

The 40-year-old duchess has sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which is also a publisher of MailOnline, over five articles reproducing parts of a “personal and private” letter to 77-year-old Thomas Markle in August 2018.

In a winning statement, she used the last line to say that tabloid practices are a “daily failure that separates us,” in a seemingly nod to a nickname used by Daily Mail critics for the newspaper.

The statement read: “This is not a victory just for me, but for anyone who has ever been afraid to stand up for what is right.

“While this victory is a precedent, the most important thing is that we are now brave enough together to reshape the tabloid industry, which conditions people to be cruel, and to profit from the lies and pain they create.

“From day one, I have considered this lawsuit as an important measure of good and wrong.

“The accused treated this as a game without rules.

“The longer they dragged this, the more they were able to distort the facts and manipulate the public (even during the complaint itself), making a simple case extremely complex to create more headlines and sell more newspapers – a model that rewards chaos over truth.

“In the almost three years since this started, I have been patient against deception, intimidation and deliberate attacks.

“Today, the courts ruled in my favor – again – and confirmed that The Mail on Sunday, owned by Lord Jonathan Rothermere, had broken the law.

“The courts have brought the accused to justice and I hope we will all start doing the same.

“Because it may seem far from your personal life, it isn’t.

“It could be you tomorrow.

“These harmful practices don’t happen once in the blue moon – they are a daily failure that separates us, and we all deserve better.”

The Duchess won her case earlier this year when a High Court judge ruled in her favor without a full trial.

However, ANL filed a complaint and at a three-day hearing in November argued that the case should go to trial over Meghan’s claims against the publisher – including privacy and copyright infringement.

The three senior judges made their decision on the appeal on Thursday at 10 a.m. and sided with the duchess.

Summarizing the appellate court’s decision to dismiss the Associated Newspapers appeal, Sir Geoffrey Vos said: “The appellate court upheld the judge’s decision that the duchess reasonably expected privacy in the contents of the letter.

“These contents were personal, private and were not matters of legitimate public interest.

“Articles in the Mail on Sunday encroached on the Duchess’s reasonable expectation of privacy and were not a legitimate or proportionate means of correcting inaccuracies in the letter.”