Judge delays Meghan privacy case trial

LONDON: A London judge on Thursday agreed to delay the trial phase of Meghan Markle’s high-profile lawsuit against a British newspaper group for privacy and copyright breaches.

Judge Mark Warby said he had approved an application by the Duchess of Sussex’s lawyers for the trial to be adjourned from January until "much later next year". The "primary basis" for the delay was on "a confidential ground," he added after a private hearing at the High Court in London.

"The right decision in all the circumstances is to grant the application to adjourn," he said. "That means that the trial date of January 11, 2021, will be vacated and the trial will be refixed for a new date in the autumn."

Meghan, who with her husband Prince Harry is waging an increasingly public war with some media outlets, is suing the publishers of the Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail and MailOnline. The American former television actress claims Associated Newspapers breached her privacy, her data protection rights and copyright by publishing extracts of correspondence with her estranged father, Thomas, before she married Harry.

The High Court last month allowed the newspaper group to amend its defence against the claim, to allege the couple cooperated on a recent book about their lives together. Associated accuses Meghan of giving the authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand details about the letter to portray her version of events in a more favourable light.