Meghan, Duchess of Sussex apologizes for cheating UK court

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has apologized to a UK court for forgetting emails she exchanged with an aide who was in contact with the authors of an unauthorized biography about her and Prince Harry, according to the UK state agency . She added that she had “no intention of deceiving” the judiciary.

The Sussex have repeatedly denied collaborating with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand on their book “Finding Freedom,” but Meghan apologized in a statement made public Wednesday after a former aide told the court he provided information to the authors.

The Duchess’s apology came as part of her litigation against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), editor of the UK newspaper The Mail on Sunday, which reproduced parts of a private letter she sent to her father Thomas Markle in August 2018.

In February, Meghan won her privacy claim against publisher ANL, and the judge ruled that “the disclosures were excessive and therefore illegal” and that there would be “no prospect of a different decision being reached after a trial”.

However, the ANL disputes the decision and says there must be a trial.

In their own testimony, Meghan and Harry’s former communications secretary Jason Knauf said the book was “routinely discussed” and “discussed directly with the Duchess several times in person and via email,” according to PA.

Knauf said Meghan provided several subjects to share with the authors at a potential meeting, which he also discussed with Harry via email.

The former aide said that Harry told him, “I totally agree that we have to be able to say that we have nothing to do with this” via email. “In the same way, providing the right context would help to spread some truths.”

In her own testimony, Meghan apologized for misleading the court about Knauf’s contact with Scobie and Durand.

“I accept that Mr. Knauf provided some information to the authors of the book and that he did so, with my knowledge, for a meeting he planned with the authors in his capacity as secretary of communications. The extent of the information he shared is unknown to me,” she said.

“When I approved the ticket … I couldn’t see these emails and I apologize to the court that I didn’t remember these exchanges at the time. I had absolutely no desire or intention to deceive the defendant or the court.”

Meghan also said she was not aware of the emails between her and Knauf at the time of her earlier statement because the litigation had not yet reached the disclosure stage and her lawyers asked for a postponement of the trial due to her pregnancy.

“I was in the first trimester of my third pregnancy at the time, having had a miscarriage a few months earlier, and I was feeling really bad,” Meghan said.