The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has won a landmark privacy case against the Mail on Sunday. But this isn’t the only reason that Markle and her spouse, Prince Harry, are making headlines.
The couple also took to Instagram to announce that they are expecting a second child and have teased a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Still, the legal victory is significant. It comes after the Mail on Sunday shared Markle’s private handwritten letters to her estranged father in a series of five articles. In a summary judgment, an English court ruled that this represented an excessive invasion of Markle’s privacy. Markle, the presiding judge said, had a “reasonable expectation that the contents of the letter would remain private. The Mail articles interfered with that reasonable expectation. Taken as a whole the disclosures were manifestly excessive and hence unlawful.”
Now, consider the timing of the Oprah interview, and it quickly becomes clear that Harry and Markle want to send a direct message to the British media. In a public statement, Markle declared that “the world needs reliable, fact-checked, high-quality news. What the Mail on Sunday and its partner publications do is the opposite.” The Daily Mail is one of the most widely-read newspapers in Britain, so the court’s judgment will affect reporting more widely. However, it should be noted that reporting from U.S. media outlets remains constitutionally protected in preference to the right of privacy. Markle would not have won her case had it been brought against an American publication.
Their legal success aside, Markle and Harry face a challenge — namely, how to navigate unrelenting media attention, on their terms, without alienating the British public.
It’s not just the Oprah interview. Recently agreeing to a highly lucrative deal with Netflix, the couple is hardly shying away from the media entirely. But they are certainly opting for a different approach — one that does not align with the principles of British royalty.
In January 2020, Harry and Markle “stepped back” from the royal family. The decision, often sardonically referred to as “Megxit,” meant the pair would split their time between the United Kingdom and North America, as well as becoming financially independent and relinquishing most royal duties. The already-recorded interview with Oprah, which will be broadcast on CBS on March 7, will surely generate attention around the world. But British monarchists will likely view whatever the couple has said as a kick in the teeth to the British establishment.
Certainly, this interview represents a very obvious rebuke to the long-established British royal motto, “never complain, never explain.” The couple will fuel those critics who say that they should abdicate entirely from the royal family, as well as bring into question the eminence of the royal family more widely. But to their supporters, the couple is again proving that being part of a famous family need not necessarily mean bending the knee to powerful interests.
One thing is for sure. Whether on the inside or outside, Markle has changed the British royal family forever.
Nikki Peach is a freelance journalist based in London. She recently graduated from City, University of London with a master’s in broadcast journalism and writes about culture and current affairs.
