While Meghan’s US admirers might have wished Tom Sr to disappear, in Britain the feeling was more nuanced. The fact that he had chosen not to sue her, but to get a British publication to put his side of the story, showed that he did not want to hardball Meghan, though he did want to redress the balance. Had he been the money-grubbing, attention-seeking jerk that Meghan’s friends had made him out to be, he could have got millions off People, as well as a lot more coverage than an article in the Mail on Sunday, by suing her and the friends who had defamed him to People magazine.
To those of us who know the score, Meghan’s choice of publication to sue was interesting, possibly even cynical, and certainly indicative of a sophisticated and intelligent operator. The Mail on Sunday is owned by DMG Trust, whose main shareholder and chairman is the 4th Viscount Rothermere, a cousin of Lady Mary Gaye Curzon’s first husband, Esmond Cooper-Key. The present editor is Ted Verity, but the previous editor was Geordie Greig, now editor of its sister paper the Daily Mail. The royal couple might well have thought that the Mail group would be a soft touch because Jonathan Rothermere and Geordie Greig have impeccable connections within the highest levels of British society and would not want to jeopardise their connections with the Royal Family. If that is so, they miscalculated.
British press barons are vastly influential, but Jonathan and his father Vere have always been known to be have been hands-off owners. They literally let their editors and managers function with no reference to themselves. During the Leveson Enquiry into press standards, this was proven when Jonathan was shown to be so detached from the running of his mighty media empire that he had resisted the former Prime Minister David Cameron’s blandishments to influence his editors over Brexit. I knew his parents, whom I first met in 1973 in Jamaica, where they had a house at Round Hill where Tom Inskip’s reception was held and Harry and Meghan stayed. It was therefore only natural that once I started having trouble with his newspapers, I would approach Vere to intercede on my behalf. He told me that much as he liked me, and would love to stop his papers defaming me, he simply did not have the authority to do it. And if he made an exception for me, he would have to do it for everyone else in future. Jonathan’s mother Pat confirmed her husband’s detachment, and used to say that the only person Vere would ever bestir himself for was the Queen.
Geordie wielded more day to day influence as the editor of one of the country’s most popular papers. He was as well-connected as the Rothermeres. His father Sir Carron Greig had been a courtier, a Gentleman Usher to the Queen for thirty-four years before being made an Extra Gentleman Usher. His eldest brother Louis had been a Page of Honour to the Queen, his sister Laura had been a lady-in-waiting to Diana, Princess of Wales, who was godmother to her daughter Leonora Lonsdale. Harry certainly knew Laura well, so the link was anything but notional.
If Harry and Meghan thought that Jonathan and Georgie could intervene should things get dire, they miscalculated. The Mail on Sunday have stated publicly that they will defend Meghan’s claim to the bitter end. Through friends in that organisation, I have been told privately that that is indeed the paper’s intention. Thomas Markle has given statements to their lawyers, has provided evidence of the considerable financial assistance he gave Meghan over the years, to include proof that he put her through Northwestern University, has furnished medical records to substantiate that he did have the heart attacks which prevented him from attending the wedding, and has turned over his telephone records which show that Meghan and Harry never once tried to telephone or text him after their wedding, despite claims to the contrary. On the other hand, he tried on numerous occasions to contact her, again contrary to her friends’ claims to People.
Within days, Harry would announce that he was also suing the Sun and the Mirror for hacking his ‘phones many years ago. The die was now well and truly cast.
It is a very serious occurrence when a member of the British Royal Family sues a British national newspaper. It is even more serious when you not only have a weak case, as Meghan patently did, but your opponent can argue that you don’t have right on your side. No royalist wanted to see either Meghan or Harry embarrassed and humiliated in a court of law. Moreover, the wisdom in established circles has always been that you sue the press only when you’re on terra firma, occupying the high ground both legally and morally. Aside from the fact that all legal cases are unpredictable and therefore frequently less manageable than novices think they are - Oscar Wilde and Gloria Vanderbilt Sr are two cases in point - the British tabloids, despite frequent evidence to the contrary, do have standards, though these are rather higher where others are concerned than for themselves. Despite their double standards being leavened with generous doses of sanctimoniousness, hypocrisy, self-importance, self-delusion, and judgementalism, they truly believe that they have a righteous purpose in preserving liberties in our society. To an extent, they are right. They therefore have all the righteousness of Pharisees while being brutally tough, their survival skills honed thanks to the fierce competitiveness that exists between the various national publications. They hate
