Why did the Mail on Sunday appeal the privacy ruling?

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The Mail on Sunday appealed the privacy ruling by arguing that Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, wrote the letter to her father with the understanding that it could become public.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper is contesting a previous ruling that found it breached Meghan's privacy and copyright by publishing excerpts of a handwritten letter sent to her father, Thomas Markle. The newspaper's legal team presented evidence, including a statement from Meghan's former communications chief Jason Knauf and related email and text message exchanges, to support their claim. These documents, they argued, cast doubt on previous assertions made by Meghan regarding the letter's intended audience and potential for public disclosure.
Argument Regarding the Letter's Intended Audience

The core of the Mail on Sunday's appeal rests on the assertion that the Duchess of Sussex did not pen the five-page letter to her father solely as a private communication. Instead, the newspaper's lawyers contended that Meghan was aware that the letter might eventually be made public. This understanding, they suggested, was evident from the care she took in drafting its contents, with Knauf's statement indicating that Meghan had "toiled over every detail which could be manipulated."
Contradiction of Previous Accounts

During the initial proceedings, Meghan's legal representatives had denied that the letter was intended for public consumption or that she and Prince Harry had any involvement in a biography about them. However, the Mail on Sunday's appeal introduced evidence from Jason Knauf that directly challenged these earlier accounts. Knauf's statement, supported by email and text message exchanges, indicated discussions about providing some assistance to the authors of the biography, which Meghan's lawyers stated did not mention showing the letter to the authors.
Context of Publication and Potential Trial

The Mail on Sunday published extracts of the letter in February 2019, asserting that Thomas Markle wished for its contents to be public as a response to anonymous comments made by Meghan's friends in interviews with People magazine. If the Court of Appeal rules in favour of the Mail on Sunday, the case would then proceed to a full trial. Such a trial would likely involve Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, giving evidence regarding the circumstances surrounding the letter and its subsequent publication.

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Why did the Mail on Sunday appeal the privacy ruling?

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