Duchess Meghan Trends Online After Daily Mail Publisher Finally Acknowledges Court Defeat

After a legal battle lasting almost three-years, Britain’s Mail on Sunday has finally admitted defeat and printed a front-page legal notice accepting Duchess Meghan’s court win.

The tabloid’s December 26 edition features the court-ordered headline confirming the Duchess of Sussex’s May victory, which saw judge Lord Justice Warby order publisher Associated Newspapers to pay out damages and £1.5 million ($1.88 million) in legal costs after publishing a number of extracts from a private handwritten letter she had sent to her father in 2018.

"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 Boxing Day edition’s cover-line reads, adhering to the font size and appearance dictated by the British High Court in the summer.

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Inside the paper features a report of the summary judgment, which was delivered to the Mail six-months prior to their failed attempt at appealing the ruling in the U.K.’s Court of Appeals. "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 statement read. "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 in Mail Online. Financial remedies have been agreed." Payments from the paper to Meghan—who still plans to make donations to anti-bullying charities—will be made in due course.

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While the publisher had hoped for their admission to fly under the radar on one of the quietest newspaper-buying days in the British media calendar, the internet was quick to pick up on the public defeat. Within hours #MeghanMarkleWon trended across Twitter, with over 25,000 tweets in the U.S. carrying the hashtag at the time of this article being published.

Memes mocking up the tabloid paper’s front page featuring images of the duchess also made the rounds as well as tweets linking to the publisher's online post, which was legally required to link to the full court judgements.

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Following a court ruling earlier this year The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline had breached Meghan’s privacy with five articles that reproduced large swaths of the letter she sent to father Thomas Markle, the publisher fought back in the Court of Appeals. But on December 2, three judges dismissed the paper’s argument, adding that "the Duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter. Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest."

Speaking out after her win, Duchess Meghan called the double court win "a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right." Alongside a subtle mention of the tabloids often-used nickname on social media, she added, "The courts have held the defendant to account, and my hope is that we all begin to do the same. Because as far removed as it may seem from your personal life, it’s not. Tomorrow it could be you. These harmful practices don’t happen once in a blue moon—they are a daily fail that divide us, and we all deserve better."

This article originally appeared on Harper’s BAZAAR US.