According to numerous reports, the Duchess of Sussex has applied for an adjournment and a summary judgment. If granted a summary judgment, the case could be over and Meghan could emerge victorious without the need for a full trial.
The full trial is due to start on January 11 2021 where Meghan could potentially come face-to-face with her estranged father, but Meghan’s legal team believe they have “an overwhelmingly strong case”, hence the application for a summary judgement.
The Duchess of Sussex and her team have also asked for the trial date to be delayed after Judge Francesca Kaye rejected her request to make the explosive biography Finding Freedom inadmissible in the case.
ANL’s legal team have argued that Meghan and husband Prince Harry collaborated with the authors Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, which both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have denied.
Meghan lost the first round of her legal battle back in May when Judge Mark Warby dismissed some of the causes of action that were in her lawsuit, which included claims that the newspaper acted “dishonestly” by only quoting parts of her letter.
Court documents later released in July revealed that Meghan felt “unprotected” by the “institution” of the royal family during her pregnancy with baby Archie.
According to the documents, Meghan claimed she suffered “tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health” after so much media attention and that her friends felt “silenced” by Kensington Palace and unable to defend her.
“As her friends had never seen her in this state before, they were rightly concerned for her welfare, specifically as she was pregnant, unprotected by the Institution, and prohibited from defending herself,” the documents read.
The bold legal move follows Meghan’s former BFF Jessica Mulroney seemingly taking a swipe at her “fake” friends who turned their back on her following her recent scandal.
The 40-year-old Canadian fashion stylist shared a scathing post that read: “After a few rough months, something to FINALLY celebrate. Thank you for being by my side Benny. We’ve learnt so much.”
Jess made no reference to her former royal bestie Meghan and seemingly snubbing the Duchess when she continued: “Thank you to our true friends for sticking by us. We could have never made it without you.”
“Silver lining: we finally know the a**holes who we thought were our friends. Best gift we could have ever been given. Pardon my Manners.”
Meghan and Harry are currently residing in California with their one-year-old son Archie but though they may fly back to the UK for the court case in January and some other key events in the royal calendar, they will be spending the silly season Stateside.
“Global travel has been made very complicated by the coronavirus pandemic and at the moment the Duke has no plans to travel back to the UK, certainly not before Christmas,” a source told Vanity Fair.
“The problem is if he comes over then he has to quarantine and that makes things quite difficult.”