Meghan Markle Is Working to Protect Friends After Tabloid’s ‘Vicious’ Attempts to Expose Them, Court Papers Reveal
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has been in a fierce battle with the media ever since she started dating Prince Harry back in 2016. The disagreements between the tabloids and the Sussexes have only escalated in the past year, after Harry and Meghan fired a lawsuit against several prominent tabloids in late 2019.
Now, Meghan is going above and beyond to protect her friends, who have been roped into the drama after agreeing to anonymously speak to a magazine last year about the duchess.
Meghan Markle’s relationship with the press has been tumultuous
Once Meghan and Harry began dating, it didn’t take long for the press to catch wind of their relationship. And from that moment, the duchess’ life changed. Meghan was still living in North America when the tabloids became aware she was dating royalty, and from there, she was constantly photographed and followed.
After marrying into the family and gaining the royal security, things didn’t look up. Meghan was more in the spotlight than ever, and the cruel news headlines were making it difficult for her to win over the public. Plus, she was constantly compared to Kate Middleton.
The duchess’ court papers recently revealed she felt unprotected
In early fall 2019, Meghan and Harry filed a lawsuit against Mail On Sunday and other tabloids for invading the duchess’ privacy, including publishing fragments of a personal letter to her father, which Meghan claims was intentionally altered to make her look bad.
Now, recent court documents have revealed that Meghan felt “unprotected” by the royal family while pregnant with her son; she felt she couldn’t defend herself from the negative media due to the family’s unwritten rule of “never complain, never explain.”
Meghan is now doing her best to protect her friends from being named
The court documents also reveal that Mail On Sunday is allegedly aiming to uncover the names of the five friends who spoke out in favor of Meghan in anonymity for a People Magazine piece in 2019. According to The Telegraph, Meghan is fighting for their protection. The duchess claims that Mail On Sunday’s attempt to identify the friends is “vicious” and “poses a threat” to the women.
“[The women] made a choice on their own to speak anonymously with a U.S. media outlet more than a year ago, to defend me from the bullying behavior of Britain’s tabloid media,” the duchess said in a witness statement. “These five women are not on trial, and nor am I.”
The court case is a reminder that Meghan and Harry can’t totally escape the royal family
Meghan and Harry might be settling into a more private life in Los Angeles, California, but that doesn’t mean they’ve entirely escaped from the royal spotlight. In fact, this lawsuit is evidently still weighing heavily on the two of them, making it clear that, despite their attempts to escape the grip of the royal family, it hasn’t been that easy.
It’s unclear when the case will be settled, but Meghan and Harry likely won’t see ultimate peace until they’ve moved past the lawsuit.
