LONDON — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, won a significant victory in the British courts on Thursday, in her legal battle against the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, a tabloid that printed excerpts of a letter Meghan wrote to her estranged father in the frenzied run up to her wedding to Prince Harry.

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       Meghan contended that the contents of the letter were private and concerned personal matters that were not of legitimate public interest, and so she enjoyed a reasonable expectation of privacy.

       The appeals courts agreed.

       In a statement on Royal Sussex stationary, Meghan applauded the decision, as “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right.”

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       The Court of Appeal rejected an attempt by Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline, to force a trial over its publication of extracts from Meghan’s plaintive “dear daddy” letter to Thomas Markle, who has embarrassed Meghan and Harry through his dealings with tabloid journalists and photographers.

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       In the 2018 letter, she begged him to stop talking to the press, saying “your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces.”

       Meghan sued for the newspaper for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement, following articles published in 2019 that featured extensive segments of a five-page handwritten letter she had sent to her father.

       The Mail on Sunday argued that the letter was of public interest and that Thomas Markle had rights, too, to see extracts published, as he was fighting to salvage his own reputation, specifically from comments made by friends of Meghan to People magazine.

       Earlier this year, High Court judge Mark Warby ruled in favor of Meghan, saying that the infringement was so clear cut there was no reason for a trial.

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       “It was a communication between family members with a single addressee,” Warby wrote. “Precautions were taken to ensure that it was delivered only to him. It was, in short, a personal and private letter. The majority of what was published was about the claimant’s own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father’s behaviour — as she saw it — and the resulting rift.”

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       The ruling on Thursday by the Court of Appeal upholds the decision that there was no further need for a hearing on the matter.

       The duchess called the win “precedent setting,” adding, “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.”

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       Meghan contended that the appeal by the Mail on Sunday owners was cynical and designed to create more headlines.

       During the appeal, lawyers for the Mail on Sunday revealed that Meghan and Harry were highly involved in managing their public relations.

       The appeals court heard that Jason Knauf, Meghan’s former press secretary, said in a witness statement that the letter that Meghan wrote to her estranged father had been done so with the understanding that it could be leaked to the press.

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       Meghan was also forced to apologize in a statement to the court for not remembering email exchanges with Knauf, about agreeing he could provide information to the authors of “Finding Freedom,” an unauthorized biography about the couple that is highly flattering to the young royals.

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       Knauf told the court that he had provided information to the book’s authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, and that he had discussed this with the duchess. He also said in his witness statement that he’d emailed Harry about the meeting, and that the prince said: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it. Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some truths out there.”

       In her statement on Thursday, Meghan said, “from day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules. The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth. In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks.”

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       Meghan took direct aim at Lord Jonathan Rothermere, owner of the The Mail on Sunday, saying he had broken the law.

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       “The courts have held the defendant to account, and my hope is that we all begin to do the same,” the duchess said. “Because as far removed as it may seem from your personal life, it’s not. Tomorrow it could be you. These harmful practices don’t happen once in a blue moon — they are a daily fail that divide us, and we all deserve better.”

       The story was at the top of the homepage for the BBC under the banner headline, “Meghan wins ruling in Mail on Sunday privacy fight.”

       But in the Mail Online, the homepage was dominated by covid and Christmas parties.

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