Over the past couple months, Meghan Markle has been involved in an ongoing legal battle with Britain's Associated Newspapers (ANL). The Duchess of Sussex is suing ANL over its publication of a handwritten letter she sent her father, Thomas Markle, following her May 2018 wedding. In legal documents, Meghan described the letter as "private and confidential," as well as containing her "deepest and most private thoughts and feelings." She alleges the letter's publication without her consent was a misuse of her private information and breached the Data Protection Act.

On Monday (September 21), ANL filed legal documents to request permission to amend its written defense in the cast. The newspaper company is now alleging that Meghan cooperated with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand for their recently published unauthorized biography of Meghan and Prince Harry. Lawyers for ANL claim that Meghan's cooperation with Finding Freedom is a similar situation to when five of the Duchess' close friends defended her to People two years ago. ANL alleges Meghan gave her friends permission to speak about the letter publicly at that time.

Meghan and Harry continue to deny any involvement with Finding Freedom. "The Claimant and her husband did not collaborate with the authors on the Book-nor were they interviewed for it, nor did they provide photographs to the authors for the Book," their lawyers stated in a document submitted to the court. "Neither the Claimant nor her husband spoke to the authors 'for the purposes of the Book.'"

Details of a statement given to the court by Scobie were obtained by the Daily Mail, as well, which states that people "working on behalf of [Meghan] co-operated with the authors and gave them the names of people close to C who would help and that the authors spoke to such people and received information from them."

Should the judge decide to allow ALN to amend their defense, it's likely Meghan's trial will be delayed until January.

Photo: Getty

Nick Wize

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