Claims made about Meghan Markle have been called “inaccurate” or “anodyne” by her lawyers.
They relate to things said about her in a biography central to her privacy case against the Mail On Sunday.
The Duchess of Sussex’s lawyer Jenny Afia, raised some of the claims and anecdotes contained in Finding Freedom, written by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, in a witness statement to the High Court in London.
It was another step in The Duchess’s ongoing case against the Mail on Sunday in which she denies cooperating with the authors, a fact backed up by Scobie in a statement, reports Hello Magazine.
She claims passages in the book which detail Prince Harry’s thoughts of their first date together were taken from their engagement interview with the BBC.
Her legal team claim much of what is written could be found in tabloid stories, such as the couple’s first drinks together and the contents of text messages between them.
The Mail on Sunday is fighting to have details of Finding Freedom included in the trial, arguing the book demonstrates Meghan permitted personal details of her life to be shared with Scobie and Durand.
Ms Afia listed a number of stories from the book, claiming the “vast majority of these are either extremely anodyne and/or I understand are the product of creative license and/or are inaccurate”.
Among those included is the description of Meghan’s first date with Prince Harry in London. Ms Afia said the details of Harry’s thoughts about their meeting had been taken from their engagement interview with the BBC, while “the remainder of the content… including what they drank, what they talked about and the contents of their texts after the date” was labelled “incorrect”.
The account of Prince Harry’s first meeting with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was also based on the authors’ “creative licence”, she stated. It had been claimed that the meeting took place in the couple’s “temporary LA digs”, where they had enjoyed “the most delicious sashimi”.
But Ms Afia contested: “I understand that in fact The Duke of Sussex did not meet the Claimant’s mother for the first time in Los Angeles.
“Indeed, the first time he and the Claimant were ever in Los Angeles together was in 2020 when they relocated with their son.”
Meanwhile, a “very detailed” account of Harry and Meghan’s 2016 holiday to Botswana was also dismissed with the Duchess’s legal team stating she had never been on that named safari, nor had the couple ever visited that particular camp together.
Harry’s feelings following the birth of their son Archie were also brushed off as “creative licence”, while a text supposedly sent from the Duke to his father, Prince Charles, was also denied. “I understand it is widely known that the Prince of Wales does not have a mobile phone,” the statement read.
The legal papers also dismissed the claim that Meghan had sent her father, Thomas Markle, a “final message”.
“This is evidently not correct as the Claimant has, in this case, provided the full exchanges between her and her father in the run up to the wedding,” said Ms Afia.
“Her last message to him was on 17 May 2018 at 12.26. It follows that the rest of that section of the Book, which refers to the Claimant calling a friend on FaceTime from the bath and talking about the ‘final message’ to her father, is also incorrect.”