The Duchess of Sussex has been granted an interim £450,000 downpayment towards her £1.5m legal costs in her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday.
The payment follows her victory last month against Associated Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over extracts published from a private handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.
Meghan had asked for an interim payment of £750,000. She is also demanding a front-page apology, and a high court order forcing the newspaper to hand over any copies it has made of the letter, and destroy any copies of it or notes made about it.
Meghan, 39, sued ANL over five articles published in February 2019. She was granted summary judgment in relation to her privacy claim, and part of her copyright claim,
Lord Justice Warby refused ANL permission to appeal against his judgment. The publishers have the right to appeal for permission directly to the court of appeal.
At a remote hearing on Tuesday, ANL argued that Meghan’s “extremely large costs bill” of about £1.5m was disproportionate. Full costs will be decided at future hearings in the case.
Ian Mill QC, representing Meghan, argued in written submissions that ANL had “failed to deliver up copies it has of the letter such that the threat to infringe and further misuse her private information remains real and, inexplicably, the defendant has still not removed the infringing articles from Mail Online”.
He argued this was despite the…
