Prince Harry released a statement on Tuesday to announce legal action that his wife, Meghan Markle, is taking against British tabloids.
"As a couple, we believe in media freedom and objective, truthful reporting," the statement begins. "Unfortunately, my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences."
Harry argues that Markle has been wilfully misrepresented, bullied, and "vilified almost daily" by "select media outlets" — treatment, he says, that has "escalated over the past year" since she announced her pregnancy.
—Omid Scobie (@scobie) October 1, 2019
Markle has filed a claim against Associated Newspapers — the parent company of sister publications the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday — over the misuse of private information, infringement of copyright, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018.
More specifically, the lawsuit will hinge on the "contents of a private letter" that were "published unlawfully in an intentionally destructive manner," according to the statement.
Back in February, the Mail on Sunday published excerpts from a letter apparently sent from Markle to her father, who had been slamming his daughter and son-in-law in tabloid interviews for months.
Read more: Here's everything we know about Meghan Markle's dad, who's making drama for the royal family
A legal spokesperson for Markle said that publishing the letter excerpts was "part of a campaign by this media group to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her, as well as her husband."
"For these select media this is a game, and one that we have been unwilling to play from the start. I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long," Harry's statement reads. "To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in."
"Though this action may not be the safe one," he continues, "it is the right one. Because my deepest fear is history repeating itself. I've seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."
Harry's mother, the late Princess Diana, was killed in a traffic collision in 1997.
As one of the most famous and beloved public figures in the world, Diana's car had been swarmed by an aggressive group of paparazzi on motorcycles — although an official investigation found the paparazzi didn't cause the crash.
Read more: George Clooney compared Meghan Markle's plight to Princess Diana, saying 'we've seen how that ends'
According to the media information provided with the statement, Harry and Markle are funding the lawsuit themselves, and any damages they win in court will be donated to an anti-bullying charity.
Representatives for Buckingham Palace and Schillings, the law firm representing Markle, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
