Dawn Images

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said on Thursday a British tabloid had been held to account for its “dehumanising practices” after she won a privacy claim against the paper for printing extracts of a letter she wrote to her father.

Meghan, 39, the wife of Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Prince Harry, sued publisher Associated Newspapers after its Mail on Sunday tabloid printed parts of the handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

Last month, her lawyers asked Judge Mark Warby to rule in her favour without the need for a trial which could have pitted her against her father, who gave a witness statement on behalf of the paper and who she has not seen since her wedding in May 2018.

Warby ruled the articles were a clear breach her privacy. The newspaper said it was considering an appeal.

“After two long years of pursuing litigation, I am grateful to the courts for holding Associated Newspapers and The Mail on Sunday to account for their illegal and dehumanizing practices,” Meghan said in a statement.

She said the tactics of the paper and its sister publications had gone for too long without consequence.

“For these outlets, it’s a game. For me and so many others, it’s real life, real relationships, and very real sadness. The damage they have done and continue to do runs deep,” she said.

Meghan wrote the five-page letter to Markle after their relationship collapsed in the run-up to her glittering wedding to Harry in May 2018, which her father missed due to ill health and after he admitted posing for paparazzi pictures.