The former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle sent Thomas Markle, Meghan's father, text messages pleading him to contact them and warning him that speaking publicly about their relationship would backfire. The said text messages were exchanged months leading up to their wedding.
Meghan Markle sued the publishers of The Mail On Sunday and MailOnline over the publication of a private letter sent to the 75-year-old Thomas Markle in August of 2018. The court documents showed that the first hearing of the case will take place on April 24.
The text messages
The documents were disclosed ahead of the first hearing, the couple sent Mr. Markle messages before they got married at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. The texts were sent on May 14, 2018, after calls to Mr. Markle went unanswered.
Prince Harry's text messages are as follows:
"Tom, Harry again! I really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologize (sic), we understand the circumstances but 'going public' will only make the situation worse."
"If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don't involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation. So please call me so I can explain. Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u. Thanks."
"Oh, and speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me, Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1."
According to the documents, Mr. Markle did not respond to the message or phone calls from both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Days later, Mr. Markle issued a public statement through TMZ that he had gone to the hospital because he had suffered a heart attack. The document also stated that Meghan only found out about her father's condition after reading the story online.
On May 15, Meghan texted her father. Her text messages are as follows:
"I've been reaching out to you all weekend but you're not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts. Very concerned about your health and safety and have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what more we can do if you don't respond."
The Duchess sent another text about 10 minutes later, offering to send a security team to him, adding: "Please, please call as soon as you can... all of this is incredibly concerning but your health is most important."
After his daughter texted him, Mr. Markle responded by saying that he would be in a hospital for a few days but he was okay and he refused the security that Meghan offered. Prince Harry sent more messages from his wife's phone to provide Mr. Markle with details of the security team, and he asked his father-in-law to speak to him about letting a security guard return to Mr. Markle's house.
The lawsuit against Associated Newspapers
Meghan is suing the Associated Newspapers over an article that reproduced parts of the letter that she wrote for her father. The sections of the letter were published in the newspaper and online in February 2019 and it was announced that the actress would be bringing legal action in October 2019.
Meghan's lawyers stated that the letter was private and that the newspaper chose to deliberately omit or suppress parts of the letter. The former Duchess is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act. Meanwhile, Associated Newspapers denies the allegations.
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