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Duchess Meghan (archive image)
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The dispute over a letter from Meghan to her father, printed by the British tabloids, is entering the next round.
Jason Knauf, former head of communications for the Duchess, testified at an appeal hearing in London.
After the tabloids "Daily Mail", "Mail on Sunday" and the Internet portal "Mail Online" published excerpts from the letter, Meghan sued Associated Newspapers for violation of their privacy and copyright and demanded damages.
The judges gave Meghan right on several occasions - but the Associated Newspapers publisher appealed.
At a hearing, the publisher's lawyers argued again that Meghan had always known that the letter to the public would be punctured.
Her former head of communications, Jason Knauf, could confirm that.
Knauf said Meghan had indicated that she could imagine her father giving the letter to the press.
You have racked your brain about "every manipulable detail".
"Words carefully chosen"
Knauf said Meghan asked him to examine the letter for formulations that could be interpreted negatively for her.
She said to him: "Of course I wrote everything I wrote knowing that it might leak, so I chose my words carefully."
The publisher's lawyer also quoted SMS between Meghan and Knauf.
It shows that Meghan decided to start the letter with the word "Daddy".
Should the letter become known, the word would "touch the hearts of men".
Meghan replied in a written statement that she did not want the letter to be public.
She also did not believe that her father would do such a thing, since the writing made him appear in a bad light.
Nevertheless, she wanted to minimize the risk of a distorted presentation if the letter were "exploited".
Meghan wrote the letter to her father a few months after her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018, with whom she has a difficult relationship.
In it, she asked him to stop speaking to tabloids and making false claims about her in interviews.
The hearings in the appeal process should continue through Thursday.
At the beginning of 2020, Meghan and Harry broke away from the British royal family and announced that they would become financially independent.
You now live in California.
jpz / Reuters / AP / dpa