Meghan Markle has apologised to the Court of Appeal amidst the ongoing lawsuit with the Mail on Sunday, after 'not remembering' she had instructed a former of employee to brief the authors of a biography being written about her.
Meghan, 40, sued the publication after it published a letter she had sent her father after her wedding to Prince Harry.
Although the Duchess of Sussex won the case earlier this year, the Mail on Sunday appealed the decision.
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In the formal apology, the Duchess of Sussex admitted that aide Jason Knauf - who was communications secretary to Meghan and Prince Harry until March 2019 - had been told to liaise with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors of Finding Freedom.
Despite the couple previously claiming they "did not contribute", Jason said the book was "discussed on a routine basis" and "discussed directly with the Duchess multiple times in person and over email."
Jason's evidence also included emails with Harry. The former communications secretary said Prince Harry had said: "I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn't have anything to do with it.
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"Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some truths out there."
In a statement, Meghan said she accepted that Jason did provide information to the authors but the "extent of the information he shared is unknown to me".
"When I approved the passage... I did not have the benefit of seeing these emails and I apologise to the court for the fact that I had not remembered these exchanges at the time," she added
"I had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court."
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The Duchess also explained another reason why she had not discovered the emails sooner. In October 2020, lawyers adjourned the trial date due to the fact Meghan was pregnant.
"I was in the first trimester of my third pregnancy at the time, having suffered a miscarriage a few months prior, and was feeling very unwell," she said.
"My doctor advised me to avoid stress, particularly given the recent miscarriage days after the defendant threatened to break the confidentiality of the original 'sources' for the People magazine article, which resulted in my having to make an urgent application for an anonymity order.
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"This was granted... but I found the process extremely stressful, and it took its toll physically and emotionally.
"I have at all times wanted to protect the privacy of those friends, while the defendant was, it seemed to me, doing everything it could to make this litigation as intrusive as possible."
On Wednesday, further private messages between Meghan and Jason had been revealed as part of the ongoing lawsuit.
The leaked messages show Meghan had discussed the letter to her father with Jason.
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Prior to sending the letter in 2018, a message to Jason reads: "Obviously everything I've 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 to you as a liability."
Meghan added: "Honestly Jason, I feel fantastic, cathartic and real and honest and factual.
"If he leaks it then that's on his conscience but at least the world will know the truth, words I could never voice publicly."
The paper is arguing that the messages contradict Meghan's case, due to the fact the Duchess recognised it could be leaked.
In a statement, Meghan said: The proposition that saying that I recognised that it was possible that my father would leak the letter, albeit unlikely, is the same as saying that I thought it likely that he would do so is, I would suggest, absurd," she said.
“It is correct that, as I said in my texts to Mr Knauf, the situation was putting significant pressure on my husband, both externally and by his family, and I felt strongly that I needed to do something about it.
“I felt that, even if my attempt to stop my father talking to the media failed, at least my husband would be able to say to his family that I had done everything I could to stop it.”
She added: "To be clear, I did not want any of it to be published, and wanted to ensure that the risk of it being manipulated or misleadingly edited was minimized, were it to be exploited."
Featured Image Credit: ShutterstockTopics: Meghan Markle, News, Prince Harry, Royal Family