WASHINGTON — A British newspaper publisher has posted a court-ordered front page notice acknowledging the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, won a copyright lawsuit against them.
Britain's High Court ruled in February that the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline website unlawfully breached Meghan's privacy with five articles that reproduced a large chunk of a handwritten letter she sent her father, Thomas Markle, after she married Prince Harry in 2018.
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal in London upheld the ruling against Associated Newspapers.
Many on social media were quick to point out that The Mail on Sunday posted the notice and a 64-word news story on Boxing Day, one of the traditionally quieter days for newspaper sales in the United Kingdom.
The court-ordered story was also published online at 11:58 p.m. on Christmas Day.
"The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in The Mail on Sunday and in Mail Online," The Mail on Sunday statement said, "Financial remedies have been agreed."
After Britain's Court of Appeal upheld the ruling earlier this month, said the ruling was “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right.”
“What matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create," she said in the Dec. 2 statement.
The British court had also ordered the newspaper publisher to $625,000 in legal costs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.