Pregnant Meghan Markle felt ‘unprotected’ by ‘institution’ of Royal Family and left pals ‘concerned for her welfare’
MEGHAN Markle has sensationally claimed she felt "unprotected" by the "institution" of the Royal Family, in bombshell court papers.
The Duchess of Sussex, who is suing Associated Newspapers Limited, who own The Mail on Sunday, said she was unable to defend herself, leaving pals "rightly concerned for her welfare when pregnant".
The 38-year-old claims she felt "tremendous emotional distress" by media coverage - while her pals felt "silenced" by Kensington Palace and unable to defend her.
It emerged in the latest part of her High Court battle over the handwritten note she sent to her dad Thomas in August 2018.
The explosive court papers also reveal:
- Meghan claims her 2018 Royal Wedding that cost £32m at Windsor brought in £1bn tourism cash
- Wrote an infamous letter to her dad Thomas to stop him being 'manipulated' - instead of to reconcile
- Asked why she couldn't take paid work when Princess Beatrice and Eugenie do
- Meghan spent her own money on flights for her father to and from to London and his hotel for her wedding
Today, the new legal documents show Meghan denies saying in the personal letter that she felt 'victimised' by her dad.
In the documents, Meghan also said that she felt "unprotected" by the "institution" of the Royal Family and was unable to defend herself against false claims that where made about her.
The 38-year-old said that some of those claims included the royal rift with William and Kate before she and Harry stepped down as senior royals in March - known widely as 'Megxit'.
Meghan is suing ANL for publishing the personal letter to her dad - although the media group claims Mr Markle made it public after five of her pals gave an interview about it to People magazine.
The Duchess today named the pals - although they are only referred to as A, B, C, D and E in the papers - and they could now be called to testify at a trial.
People magazine previously described them as "Meghan's inner circle – a longtime friend, a former co-star, a friend from LA, a one-time colleague and a close confidante'".
Meghan has denied authorising her friends to speak out to defend her in the magazine article.
She said she learned an article about her was due to appear shortly before it was published, but did not know it would be in People magazine or its contents.
The possible trial would focus on whether Meghan had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter to her dad.
Meghan denied saying she felt "victimised" by Thomas Markle
Meghan's leaked letter told how 74-year-old Thomas Markle broke her heart "into a million pieces" by badmouthing the Royal Family and her marriage to Prince Harry.
Last year, he told the Mail on Sunday the gut-wrenching five-page letter was a "dagger to the heart" which left him "devastated".
Today, Meghan denied saying she felt "victimised" by him, and dismissed claims she told him she had "only one father".
Her court papers claim she wrote to the pensioner, who lives in the US, to raise concerns he was being used by the media.
She felt he "raised concern Mr Markle had "consistently allowed himself to be manipulated by the tabloid media despite her trying to persuade him not to speak to them for his own good"
The Duchess believes she is entitled to a "reasonable expectation of privacy" and thought its contents would never be published.
The Duchess felt "unprotected" by the "institution" of the Royal Family
Meghan also claimed in the documents that she felt 'unprotected' by the 'institution' of the Royal Family while she was pregnant.
She said that she had "become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles in UK newspapers - especially by Associated Newspapers titles, which caused "tremendous emotional distress".
She added: "As her friends had never seen her in this state before, they were rightly concerned for her welfare, specifically as she was pregnant, unprotected by the Institution, and prohibited from defending herself."
How the Sussex's wedding brought in £1bn for the country
In the documents, Meghan claims her Royal Wedding made Britain £1billion in tourism cash.
She believes the money raised from the wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018 “far outweighed” the contribution stumped up by the taxpayer towards security.
Meghan’s legal team have also said the royal wedding was “not, in fact, publicly funded, but rather personally financed by HRH The Prince of Wales”.
The royal wedding that finished with a huge firework display, cost an estimated £32m.
In a submission made by her team, it added: “Any public costs incurred for the wedding were solely for security and crowd control to protect members of the public, as deemed necessary by Thames Valley Police and the Metropolitan Police.”
The revelations were revealed in legal papers filed in the ongoing case between Meghan Markle and Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over an article in The Mail On Sunday which reproduced parts of a handwritten note she had sent to her father Thomas Markle in August 2018.
Meghan argued that she should be able to do paid work like Princess Eugenie and Beatrice
Meghan also named Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie in the court docs, singling out the sisters and Prince Michael of Kent.
She named the trio while clarifying that members of the royal are, in fact, allowed to undertake paid work.
The Duchess hit back after it was stated in legal papers that she is "a member of the royal family and does not undertake paid work”.
In response, Meghan said it was wrong as "several member[s] of the Royal Family do ‘undertake paid work’ including, for example, Princess Beatrice of York, Princess Eugenie of York and Prince Michael of Kent".
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The Princesses - the children of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson - are not 'working royals' and are under no obligation to attend royal events.
Beatrice works in finance and consulting and Eugenie is a director at a London art gallery.
Meghan is estimated to have made around £4m from her acting career before marrying Prince Harry.
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Since quitting royal life she has resumed her career and recently narrated Disney film Elephant.
In the legal documents, Meghan added that she "was also the founder of the commercially successful lifestyle website The Tig"
