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Jason Knauf, the former head of communications of Meghan and Prince Harry, claimed in a written witness statement the Duchess of Sussex had “lost confidence” her estranged father would respect the privacy of her communication, the court heard. In his written evidence, Mr Knauf said: “When the Duchess was considering how to handle Mr Markle’s increasing public interventions – both for concerns about his welfare and also to protect her reputation – she explored options for written communication that might convince him to stop giving interviews, but that could also set the record straight if he gave them to the media.
“The Duchess said she was writing the letter in part to allow the Duke to demonstrate to his family that some action was being taken by the couple to stop Mr Markle from continuing to engage with the media.
“She added that ‘…while unlikely perhaps it will also give my father a moment to pause’.”
Mr Knauf added: “She asked me to review the text of the letter, saying ‘obviously everything I have drafted is with the understanding that it could be leaked so I have been meticulous in my word choice but please do let me know if anything stands out for you as a liability’.”
In his written evidence, Mr Knauf also claimed the Duchess had asked whether she should call her father “daddy” in the letter and said it would “pull at the heartstrings” if leaked.
He said: “She also asked a specific question regarding addressing Mr Markle as ‘daddy’ in the letter, saying ‘given I’ve only ever called him daddy it may make sense to open as such (despite him being less than paternal), and in the unfortunate event that it leaked it would pull at the heartstrings’.”
In her own witness statement, Meghan said she did not think the letter was “likely” to be leaked.
But, she said, she “merely recognised that this was a possibility given the extraordinary level of media attention and unusual lens we were all under.”
The Mail on Sunday is appealing to the Court of Appeal after it lost its case against Meghan earlier this year.
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