Meghan Markle’s fight to protect five pals in court today after they gave interview defending her

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MEGAN Markle is set to fight in court today to protect the identities of her five pals who spoke anonymously to a US magazine about her.

The Duchess of Sussex has always denied giving her pals permission to defend her to People magazine in the explosive chat.

Meghan Markle is set to fight to protect the identities of her five pals in the High Court today

Meghan with her father Thomas Markle – who she claims the letter she wrote to him was private and confidential

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are currently living in the US with their son Archie

In the bombshell article, published in February last year, the five friends spoke against the bullying the Duchess has endured.

The interview revealed that Meghan, 38, had written a letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle, three months after he was unable to walk her down the aisle following a heart attack.

The letter was then published by the Mail on Sunday – with Meghan now suing its publisher Associated Newspapers for breaching her privacy.

The newspaper denies the allegations, saying Mr Markle wanted its contents published to correct false impressions her friends had given about the contents in their magazine interviews.

Mr Justice Warby today will hear in the High Court an application by Meghan’s lawyers to maintain the anonymity of her five friends.

They have only been identified in confidential court documents as A to E.

People magazine previously described them as “Meghan’s inner circle – a longtime friend, a former co-star, a friend from LA, a one-time colleague and a close confidante’”.

Meghan has said she did not give her friends permission to speak out, but has hit out at the prospect of them being named if they are to give evidence.

Earlier this month a witness statement as part of the application the Duchess said: “These five women are not on trial, and nor am I. The publisher of the Mail on Sunday is the one on trial.

“It is this publisher that acted unlawfully and is attempting to evade accountability; to create a circus and distract from the point of this case – that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully published my private letter.

“Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy.

“Both the Mail on Sunday and the court system have their names on a confidential schedule, but for the Mail on Sunday to expose them in the public domain for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain is vicious and poses a threat to their emotional and mental wellbeing.”

‘UNFORTUNATELY INACCURATE’

Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers over five articles, two in the Mail on Sunday and three on MailOnline, which were published in February 2019 and reproduced parts of a handwritten letter she sent to Mr Markle, 75, in August 2018.

The Duchess is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

Associated Newspapers strongly denies the allegations, especially the claim that the letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.

Lawyers for Associated Newspapers have argued that her five pals, brought the letter into the public domain when it was referred to for the first time in the People magazine interview.

Only identified as Friend A, the person who told People magazine about the letter said: “She’s like ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship’.”

Meghan claimed this was an “unfortunately inaccurate” portrayal of her letter, claiming she didn’t know her friend would go public.

The publisher’s defence document said: “Information in the People interview about the claimant’s relationship and dealings with her father, including the existence of the letter and a description of its contents and the claimant’s father’s letter in response, could only have come (directly or indirectly) from the claimant.”

It added that Mr Markle had revealed the letter to correct the “false” impression Meghan’s friends had given about his actions in their interview.

The duchess’s legal team have claimed in court documents that she did not know the People Magazine article was due to appear, would not have agreed to the letter’s contents being revealed, and after its publication she phoned friend A to express “her distress”.

Meghan and her husband Prince Harry are now living in the US after quitting the Royal Family earlier this year.

It comes as the Duchess of Sussex has been accused of colluding with a paparazzi photographer to set up shots of her entering a London restaurant.

Meghan was pictured going into Toto’s restaurant wearing a stylish white coat in Kensington during March 2015, the year before she met Prince Harry.

Sources told HOAR that the picture had been “pre-arranged” through her agent at talent firm Kruger Cowne – with a photographer heading to the venue specifically to snap her going inside.

Meghan was pictured entering Toto’s restaurant in London in March 2015

Meghan was pictured entering Toto’s restaurant in London in March 2015
Mr Markle did not attend his daugther’s wedding