Why the Royal Family was 'unable to defend Meghan Markle'

Meghan Markle wasn’t defended against stories about her when she was a senior royal because some of them were true, it has been claimed.

The Duchess of Sussex has said she felt “unprotected” by the Royal Family from the stream of stories about her, in court documents which emerged on Thursday, which is why her friends went to People magazine to defend her.

But The Times has reported that Kensington Palace could not defend her because some of the stories were true.

According to the papers, the Duchess was left unhappy by stories about her deteriorating relationship with palace staff, as well as the comments made about her by her half-sister Samantha Grant.

Referring to reports that one palace employee had been left in tears by Meghan’s demand, a source told The Times: “The stories were a drop in the ocean compared to what was going on.”

The source also told the paper the “institution” Meghan felt unprotected by refers to the media team rather than members of the Royal Family.

Meghan, 38, is also reported to have wanted something done about the interviews her half-sister was carrying out, but the palace would be unlikely to get involved with those.

Meghan announced legal action against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) after the Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline published excerpts of a letter she sent her father after her wedding to Prince Harry.

She claims there was a breach of copyright, and misuse of private information in the printing of parts of the letter.

ANL has said it will hotly contest the case, and says there was no misuse because the letter had been referenced in an interview five friends of Meghan’s had carried out with People magazine.

The duchess has said she did not authorise the interview, and she previously said she did not know about it until it appeared.

Meghan was the subject of many headlines after her father, Thomas Markle, was found to have set up paparazzi photographs near his home in Mexico.

He has since gone on to claim he has not been contacted by his daughter, though in court papers, she sets out how she has sought to contact him, including how she arranged for him to attend her May 2018 wedding.

It also emerged in the papers that Mr Markle has not met either Prince Harry or the Sussexes’ son Archie.

Meghan and Harry dialled into the last hearing of her court case, which she lost, and the duchess subsequently had to strike out parts of her application against ANL.

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