Meghan denies that her mother, Doria Ragland, was not invited and dismissed reports the baby shower cost nearly $500k AUD. The clarifications were made by her lawyers in new court papers filed on Friday, reports Byline. “The suggestion that the Claimant (Meghan) deliberately left out her mother from her baby shower and ditched her in favour of her famous friends is untrue and offensive to her,” law firm Schillings said.
“The Claimant’s mother was of course invited, and the Claimant also offered to buy her airline tickets. However, her mother was unable to attend due to work commitments.” Meghan flew to Manhattan in February for the baby shower, held inside the lavish Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side. The Duchess is believed to have stayed in the penthouse suite, costing $110k AUD a night. Her close friend, Jessica Mulroney, was among the organisers of the baby shower, attended by Priyanka Chopra, Serena Williams, Gayle King and Amal Clooney, who is rumoured to have provided the private jet that took the Duchess across the pond from the UK.
In October Schillings, acting on behalf of the Duchess of Sussex, filed a High Court claim against the Mail on Sunday and its parent company over the alleged misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. It followed the publication, by the Mail on Sunday, of a handwritten letter from Meghan to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, sent in 2018. The suit claimed the paper printed only part of the letter, to portray the Duchess in a negative light. Meghan’s lawyers have also denied suggestions she had only new friends at the baby shower.
“It was also untrue and offensive to suggest, as the article does, that ‘not a single guest had known [the Claimant] for more than a decade’,” the lawyers wrote. “In fact, the true position was that the baby shower (which actually cost a tiny fraction of the $300k falsely stated in the article) was organised and hosted by one of her best friends from university; the fifteen guests who attended the shower were close friends and included long-term friendships some of which had existed for over 20 years.” Last week, new details about Meghan’s legal action against the newspaper group came to light.
Meghan’s lawyers have also accused Associated Newspapers, the parent entity of the Mail newspapers, of printing false stories about renovations at Frogmore Cottage, where the Duke and Duchess now live. It said reports Harry and Meghan had charged a £5,000 ($10k AUD) copper bath and £500,000 ($947k AUD)-worth of soundproofing to taxpayers were completely made up. The Mail on Sunday says it will defend the case “with vigour”.