Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘must have been Finding Freedom’s source’, court documents allege
- Finding Freedom was filled with secrets from Duchess of Sussex’s closest friends
- Meghan denied ‘collaborating’ with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand
- She and Harry met writers to discuss ways to write their biography, it is alleged
The authors of a biography of Meghan and Harry were secretly briefed by her friends, court documents alleged yesterday.
Finding Freedom (pictured) was filled with secrets from the Duchess of Sussex’s closest friends
Meghan’s friends reportedly told authors everything from her views on filming sex scenes to what she thought about the Duchess of Cambridge.
Finding Freedom was filled with secrets from the Duchess of Sussex’s closest friends, who acted as ‘de facto media relations agents’ to ensure the book was ‘favourable’ to her, it was said.
Meghan has denied ‘collaborating’ with the authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
But documents lodged at the High Court yesterday claimed that in 2018, Meghan ‘began to be increasingly frustrated that the press coverage she received was not to her liking and did not do her justice’.
She and Harry met the writers to discuss ways of helping them to write their biography, it is alleged.
The couple allegedly arranged for their friends to pass on information that could have originated only from Harry or Meghan themselves.
Insights included a detailed account of their relationship, such as who said ‘I love you’ first, and the former Suits actress’s feelings on having to film a sex scene when she was starting her screen career.
The book also featured her views on a Suits love scene which had been uploaded to a pornographic website.
Other examples, the court was told, included details from the duchess’s first meeting with the Duke of Cambridge, such as the internal decor of his home.
Meghan’s ‘relationship with the Duchess of Cambridge and her feelings about the duchess at various times’ were also revealed, the document alleged.
The birth plan of the couple’s son Archie and how Meghan felt at the moment he was born also featured in Finding Freedom, along with a ‘detailed account’ of the Sussexes’ visit to George and Amal Clooney’s villa in Lake Como.
The court document, filed by lawyers for the Mail on Sunday as part of a privacy action brought by Meghan, said: ‘Much of the information in the book could have originated only from [the duchess] and/or her husband themselves.’
The newspaper’s document also alleged that in November or December 2018, Meghan told the communications team at Kensington Palace that ‘her friends were assisting the authors’.
Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday – the sister paper of the Daily Mail – for breach of privacy after it published extracts from a letter she sent her father Thomas Markle.
The newspaper said the letter also featured in the biography and it has been given the court’s permission to include the book in its defence for the trial which is due to start in January.