Why Meghan Markle apologised for misleading a court over biography emails

Meghan Markle has apologised for misleading a court after forgetting that she asked a senior aide to brief the authors of an unauthorised biography about her and her husband.

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, is currently in a legal battle with Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) - the publisher of The Mail On Sunday.

Meghan sued ANL over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter sent to her father Thomas Markle, 77, in August 2018.

The High Court ruled earlier this year that the publication of the letter to her father was unlawful.

The court made a summary judgment for Meghan, meaning that the case would not go to trial.

However, the ANL is challenging that ruling at the Court of Appeal.

The publisher is arguing that the case should go on trial on Meghan’s claims including breach of privacy and copyright.

Jason Knauf’s witness statement

The court heard a witness statement this week from Meghan and Harry’s former communications secretary Jason Knauf.

Mr Knauf said that he provided information to the authors of Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.

He added that the book was “discussed on a routine basis”, which was “discussed directly with the duchess multiple times in person and over email”.

Mr Knauf also discussed planning a meeting with the authors to provide background information and said Meghan had given him several briefing points to share with them.

This included information on how she had “very minimal contact” with her half-siblings during her childhood.

Emails released as part of Mr Knauf’s statement showed he had emailed Harry to discuss the book and to say he would meet the authors.

According to the former aide, the duke replied: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it.