Meghan Markle loses latest fight as High Court rules in favour of UK tabloid

Meghan Markle has lost the latest battle in her privacy lawsuit as London's High Court ruled that the tabloid could amend its case ahead of a trial next year.

The judge, Francesca Kaye, said that while she made no view on the strength of the Mail's case, the amendments could not be said to be 'unarguable or utterly fanciful'.

The tabloid, at a preliminary hearing last week, sought permission to amend its written defence to Meghan's claim to argue she "co-operated with the authors of the recently published book Finding Freedom to put out their version of certain events".

The Duchess of Sussex is suing the tabloid over articles from February 2019, which featured parts of a 'private and confidential' letter from the Duchess to her estranged father, Thomas Markle in August 2018.

Meghan's legal team denied she "collaborated" with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand for their royal biography Finding Freedom, and argued that references in the book, published in August, were simply "extracts from the letter lifted from the defendant's own articles".

The Sussex’s lawsuit against the tabloid is, at its core, over a letter. One that the Duchess of Sussex wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, after a series of high-profile dramas: first, his decision not to attend his daughter’s May 2018 wedding. Then, a series of subsequent media interviews where he was critical of his daughter and her husband.

During the preliminary hearing last week, it was revealed that Meghan's legal fees for her High Court case could cost up to millions of dollars.