Prince Harry Says Meghan Markle Had a Miscarriage Due to Stress of Legal Case Against U.K. Tabloid
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry believe Meghan had a miscarriage as a direct result of press intrusion into their lives.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex made the claim during the second volume of their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, released Thursday.
Speaking to the camera, the couple's lawyer Jenny Afia said that she was aware of the "toll it was taking" on Meghan to pursue legal action against Associated Newspapers in 2020, after the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline printed sections of a private letter she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, following her May 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
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Afia added that Meghan was pregnant, but not able to sleep as a result of the pressure she felt as the couple moved into their new home in Montecito, California.
"The first morning that we woke up in our new home is when I miscarried," said Meghan.
Martin Meissner/AP/Shutterstock Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
"I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what the Mail did," added Harry. "I watched the whole thing."
"Now do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was created caused by that? Of course, we don't," he added about the lack of evidence of a causal link between the events.
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"[But] bearing in mind the stress that caused the lack of sleep and the timing of the pregnancy, how many weeks in she was, I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her," Harry continued. "I thought she was brave and courageous, but that doesn't surprise me because she is brave and courageous."
In December 2021, Meghan received a full public apology from the Mail on Sunday after a protracted court battle in London's High Court.
Samir Hussein/WireImage; Splash Meghan Markle and Prince Harry; Thomas Markle
The publication printed a front-page mea culpa to the Duchess of Sussex, 40, as required by multiple rulings that the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline website breached her privacy in February 2019 by printing elements of a five-page letter she wrote to her father shortly after her wedding to Harry
"The Duchess of Sussex wins her legal case for copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers for articles published in The Mail on Sunday and posted on Mail Online," the front page notice read.
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DANIEL LEAL/AFP Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
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"Following a hearing on 19-20 January, 2021, and a further hearing on 5 May, 2021, the Court has given judgment for the Duchess of Sussex on her claim for copyright infringement. The Court found that Associated Newspapers infringed her copyright by publishing extracts of her handwritten letter to her father in The Mail on Sunday and on Mail Online. Financial remedies have been agreed," the remainder of the public apology read on page 3.
Despite a legal challenge from the publisher, the court's decision in the privacy and copyright infringement case was upheld on Dec. 2, 2021 by the Court of Appeal in London.
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In a statement, Meghan said, "This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what's right."
She noted, "While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create."
Meghan continued, "From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules. The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth. In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks."
