Finding Freedom author says he ‘never saw’ Meghan Markle’s letter to father Thomas

The author of a biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has told the High Court claims they were given a copy of Meghan’s letter to her father are “not true”.

Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand’s book Finding Freedom was released last year and has become embroiled in a legal battle between Meghan and the Mail on Sunday.

The Duchess, 39, is suing the newspaper’s publisher, Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) after extracts of a letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, were published online and in print.

Defending the privacy claim, ANL involved the publication of Finding Freedom and suggested the authors had also seen a copy of the handwritten letter.

But Mr Scobie wrote to the court just before Christmas last year, insisting: “This claim is not true.

“I did not have a copy of the letter, nor did Ms Durand. At no time were we provided with a copy of the letter, or the text of the letter, or any extracts from the texts of the letter.

“In fact, the first time we saw what the letter actually said was when we read the articles published by the Mail on Sunday in February 2019.”

He said extracts of the letter that feature in the book were lifted from newspapers articles and has provided a witness statement as evidence.

In a newly released letter to the court, Mr Scobie said the Mail on Sunday has not been in touch to ask him about the issue, and he added: “We have no wish to be involved in this case.

“I made it clear in my witness statement that we spoke to more than 100 people for the purposes of the book, and many of our sources were confidential (i.e. they spoke on the condition of anonymity).

“We are not prepared to compromise the confidentiality of these sources, which is our principal reason for not wishing to be involved and why we do not wish to go into details that might lead to that confidentiality being compromised.”

Meghan is currently applying to Mr Justice Warby for summary judgment, arguing ANL does not have a good enough defence for the case to go to trial.

She is suing for alleged misuse of private information and breach of copyright. If her application is unsuccessful, the case is expected to go to trial this autumn.

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