Meghan Markle, who is living in California with Prince Harry after quitting royal duties last year, will today hear whether her bid to have parts of her privacy claim against The Mail on Sunday and Mail Online resolved without a trial has been successful. Meghan, 39, is suing publisher Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over a series of articles which reproduced sections of a handwritten letter she sent to 76-year-old Mr Markle in August 2018.

The former actress is seeking damages for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act over five articles, published in February 2019, which included extracts from the “private and confidential” letter to her estranged father, who lives in Mexico.

Her lawyers argue ANL has “no prospect” of defending her claim for misuse of private information and alleged breach of copyright over the publication of the letter.

At a remote High Court hearing in January, ex-Suits star Meghan’s lawyers asked Mr. Justice Warby to grant “summary judgment” in relation to her privacy and copyright claims, which would see those parts of the case resolved without a trial. Antony White QC, representing ANL, said the case was “wholly unsuitable for summary judgment.”

During the two-day hearing, Justin Rushbrooke QC, representing Meghan, described the letter as “a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father”.

He said the “contents and character of the letter were intrinsically private, personal and sensitive in nature” and that Meghan therefore “had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the contents of the letter.”

However, ANL claims Harry’s wife wrote the letter “with a view to it being disclosed publicly at some future point” in order to “defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter”, which she denies.