Harry And Meghan Are Taking Legal Action Against British Tabloid Press
Prince Harry is taking stand against the “ruthless” treatment he says wife Meghan has received in the British tabloid press.
Prince Harry and Meghan are taking legal action against British tabloid company Associated Newspapers, which includes Mail on Sunday, “over the intrusive and unlawful publication of a private letter written by the Duchess of Sussex” as part of a campaign to “publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her” and him.
On Tuesday, on the couple’s official Instagram account, Harry released a statement talking about how he had been a “silent witness” to Meghan’s “private suffering” for too long.
It read: “As a couple, we believe in media freedom and objective, truthful reporting. We regard it as a cornerstone of democracy and in the current state of the world – on every level – we have never needed responsible media more.
“Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences, a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son.”
The statement continued: “There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face – as so many of you can relate to – I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been. Because in today’s digital age, press fabrications are repurposed as truth across the globe. One day’s coverage is no longer tomorrow’s chip-paper. Up to now, we have been unable to correct the continual misrepresentations – something that these select media outlets have been aware of and have therefore exploited on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.”
“It is for this reason we are taking legal action, a process that has been many months in the making. The positive coverage of the past week from these same publications exposes the double standards of this specific press pack that has vilified her almost daily for the past nine months; they have been able to create lie after lie at her expense simply because she has not been visible while on maternity leave.
“She is the same woman she was a year ago on our wedding day, just as she is the same woman you’ve seen on this Africa tour.”
Harry went on and compared the “campaigns against” Meghan in the press to the treatment his mother, Princess Diana received.Â
“Though this action may not be the safe one, it is the right one. Because my deepest fear is history repeating itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces,” he wrote.
Harry ended the statement, by thanking the public for their support. “We thank you, the public, for your continued support. It is hugely appreciated. Although it may not seem like it, we really need it.”
A legal spokesperson from Schillings, who is representing the Duchess of Sussex, said; “Given the refusal of Associated Newspapers to resolve this issue satisfactorily, we have issued proceedings to redress this breach of privacy, infringement of copyright and the aforementioned media agenda.“