Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, texted a former aide that Prince Harry faced “constant berating” from the royal family over her tumultuous relationship with her estranged father, messages released on Friday have shown.
The duchess sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, over five articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” letter to Thomas Markle, her father.
ANL has brought an appeal against a High Court judge’s decision to grant Ms Markle summary judgment — meaning she won her case without a trial.
During the hearing this week, ANL’s lawyers told senior judges they want to rely on new evidence from Jason Knauf — former communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — who claimed that the duchess wrote the letter with the understanding that it could be leaked.
After extracts of texts and emails between the duchess and Mr Knauf were used in court, further texts were made public on Friday following an application by the PA news agency and The Times.
The duchess previously told the Court of Appeal that the main purpose of the letter “was to encourage my father to stop talking to the press” after public criticism and a “media onslaught” surrounding Mr Markle.
“It was only when my father began criticising the royal family … that senior members of the family and their advisers expressed their concern over the public attacks, and expressed their desire to have them stopped,” she wrote in her evidence.
In the newly released text messages, sent to Mr Knauf while she was drafting the handwritten letter, the duchess can be seen expressing her frustration about the response of the royal family.
She wrote: “The catalyst for my doing this is seeing how much pain this is causing [Prince Harry].
“Even after a week with his dad and endlessly explaining the situation, his family seem to forget the context — and revert to ‘can’t she just go and see him and make this stop?’
“They fundamentally don’t understand so at least by writing, [Prince Harry] will be able to say to his family ‘she wrote him a letter and he’s still doing it’.
“By taking this form of action I protect my husband from this constant berating and while unlikely, perhaps it will give my father a moment to pause.”
During Prince Harry and Ms Markle's interview with Oprah Winfrey this year, the couple laid bare their troubled relationship with the monarchy and the duke revealed he “felt led down” by the Prince of Wales.
He said his father stopped taking his calls as he attempted to map out his future role in the monarchy in late 2019, when the duchess was under intense pressure.
Prince Harry told Winfrey: “But at the same time — I will always love him — but there’s a lot of hurt that’s happened and I will continue to make it one of my priorities to try to heal that relationship.”
During the Court of Appeal hearing, ANL’s lawyers argued that an article in People magazine in the US, which featured an interview with five of Ms Markle's friends, misrepresented the letter and made “nasty” allegations about Mr Markle.
Andrew Caldecott, representing ANL, said that the article falsely presented Mr Markle as giving “a cynical and self-interested response ignoring her pleas for reconciliation in a loving letter”.
In the newly released texts, the duchess told Mr Knauf the letter “does not open the door for a conversation”.
The court also heard that Mr Knauf provided information to the authors of Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand — leading to Ms Markle apologising for misleading the court about whether he had given information.
In his witness statement, Mr Knauf said the book was “discussed on a routine basis”, which was “discussed directly with the duchess multiple times in person and over email”.
In her evidence, made public on Wednesday, Ms Markle said: “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.
“I had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court.”
The new texts and emails show that in an email to Ms Markle in December 2018, Mr Knauf said he had spent “close to two hours” with the authors of the unauthorised biography.
“I took them through everything,” he wrote.
“They are going to time the book for run-up to the baby being born and it is going to be very positive.”
Mr Knauf also told the duchess that the book would be a “celebration of you that corrects the record on a number of fronts”, according to the authors.
At the end of the hearing on Thursday, the three senior judges said they would take time to consider their decision and give their ruling on ANL’s appeal at a later date.
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
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The biog
Favourite Emirati dish: Fish machboos
Favourite spice: Cumin
Family: mother, three sisters, three brothers and a two-year-old daughter
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Five healthy carbs and how to eat them
Brown rice: consume an amount that fits in the palm of your hand
Non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli: consume raw or at low temperatures, and don’t reheat
Oatmeal: look out for pure whole oat grains or kernels, which are locally grown and packaged; avoid those that have travelled from afar
Fruit: a medium bowl a day and no more, and never fruit juices
Lentils and lentil pasta: soak these well and cook them at a low temperature; refrain from eating highly processed pasta variants
Courtesy Roma Megchiani, functional nutritionist at Dubai’s 77 Veggie Boutique
Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
More coverage from the Future Forum
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
