the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 2GM 19
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Harry suggests ‘Megxit’ is misogynistic in attack on press
Valentine Low entitled “The Internet Lie Machine” or-
ganised by Wired magazine.
He said: “The term ‘Megxit’ was or is
a misogynistic term. It was created by a
troll, amplified by royal correspond-
ents, and it grew and grew onto main-
stream media. But it began with a troll.”
Asked about free speech and what
could be done about speech that was
harmful but legal, he said: “The free-
speech argument is somewhat a dis-
traction from the main problem.
“Have you ever noticed that the truth
is paywall but the lies are free? So when
a lie spreads on social media, it’s dan-
gerous. But when that same lie is given
credibility by journalists, or publishers,
it’s unethical and as far as I’m con-
cerned an abuse of power.
“If the news media is supposed to be
holding us to account, who is holding
them to account? It’s kind of become a
bit of a digital dictatorship.
“I really feel we have to invest in and
support professional, honest journal-
ists who respect and uphold the valuesof journalism, not the pirates with press
cards who have hijacked the most
powerful industry in the world.
“I would love to see a movement to
expose the unethical, the immoral and
dishonest amongst them.”
His remarks prompted the chairman
of the discussion, Steven Levy, Wired’s
editor-at-large, to say: “I just get a little
nervous when I hear about people
saying... who’s a journalist and who’s
not.”
Talking about internet “super-spreaders”, Harry said that “a small
group of accounts are allowed to create
a huge amount of chaos online without
any consequence whatsoever”.
He added: “More than 70 per cent of
the hate speech about my wife on Twit-
ter can be traced to fewer than 50 ac-
counts.
“Perhaps the most troubling part of
this is the number of British journalists
interacting with and amplifying the
hate and the lies. But they regurgitate
these lies as truth.”The Duchess of Sussex’s “credibility”
was questioned at the Court of Appeal
yesterday after evidence provided by a
former senior aide suggested she sent a
letter to her father “with public con-
sumption in mind”.
Lawyers for Associated Newspapers
Ltd (ANL), publisher of The Mail on
Sunday, told senior judges they wanted
to rely on new evidence from Jason
Knauf, former communications secre-
tary to the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex, which suggests Meghan was
aware her father might disclose the let-
ter to the media.
The handwritten letter to Thomas
Markle, published in The Mail on Sun-
day, is at the centre of the duchess’s pri-
vacy claim against ANL. Meghan
claimed the publisher had misused her
private information, infringed her
US obviously
needs paid
parental leave,
says duchess
Callum Jones
US Business CorrespondentThe Duke of Sussex claimed last night
that Megxit was a “misogynistic” term
invented by an internet troll and spread
by royal reporters.
In a wide-ranging attack the duke
called the news media a “digital dic-
tatorship” and appealed to ethical
journalists to expose their “dishonest”
colleagues.
Prince Harry was taking part in a vir-
tual discussion about misinformation
T
he Queen has
returned to
Windsor
Castle from
Sandringham
before her expected
attendance at the
Remembrance Sunday
wreath-laying
ceremony in
Whitehall this
weekend (Valentine
Low writes).
She is understood to
have flown back from
Norfolk by helicopter.
Buckingham Palace
has said it was the
Queen’s “firm
intention” to attend
the Remembrance
service at the
Cenotaph.
She was ordered to
rest by her doctors
three weeks ago after
spending a night in
hospital undergoing
preliminary tests.
She pulled out of a
trip to Northern
Ireland and also
missed the
Cop26 climate
change summit
in Glasgow.
However,
concerns for her
health were
allayed when it
was revealed that
she was well enoughmessage, the Queen
paid tribute to her
“dear late husband”
the Duke of
Edinburgh for his
environmental
awareness in raising
the issue more than50 years ago. Philip
died in April at the age
of 99.
She also expressed
her pride in the
environmental work
carried on by the
Prince of Wales andthe Duke of
Cambridge.
The Queen no
longer lays a wreath at
the Cenotaph. Instead
since 2017 Charles has
placed one on his
mother’s behalf.Queen flies back to
remember the fallen
The Queen was
seen being driven
around the
Sandringham
estate at the
weekend. She
returned to Windsor
by helicopter yesterdayin
ing
.
at
ughT
se
ar
Sa
est
wee
return
by helicto travel by helicopter
to Sandringham last
Thursday for a long-
planned private
weekend away. She
was seen being driven
around the estate by
John Warren, her
bloodstock adviser
and racing manager.
The Queen, 95, has
been carrying out
light duties, including
dealing with her red
boxes of government
papers and conducting
a handful of audiences
via video.
She recorded a
speech for Cop26,
calling on world
leaders to “rise above”
politics and achieve
“true statesmanship”
by tackling climate
change. In her videoMeghan’s credibility questioned
amid new evidence from ex-aide
copyright and breached the Data Pro-
tection Act. She won her case this year
when Lord Justice Warby ruled in her
favour in a summary judgment, claim-
ing the publication of Meghan’s letter in
The Mail on Sunday was “manifestly ex-
cessive and hence unlawful”.
Andrew Caldecott QC, for ANL, told
the court Knauf’s evidence cast doubt
on the basis of Warby’s ruling.
“We read the judgment as implicitly
accepting that the letter was crafted as
an intimate communication for her
father’s eyes only,” Caldecott told the
court. “The fundamental point turns
out to be false on the new evidence. The
letter was crafted specifically with the
potential of public consumption in
mind, because the claimant appreciated
Mr Markle might disclose it to the
media.”
Caldecott also said ANL’s defence
against Meghan’s privacy claim wasarguable and should have gone to trial.
He said her claim was “diminished and
outweighed” by her father’s right to
reply after “false or misleading” allega-
tions published in People magazine in
the US.
“The claimant’s letter and the People
article both make allegations against
Mr Markle of cruelly cold-shouldering
the claimant in the pre-wedding
period,” he said. “The article, or its gist,
was reported worldwide.”
The letter was written by Meghan in
August 2018, three months after her
wedding to Prince Harry. It was dis-
closed by Markle to The Mail on Sunday
in February 2019, after five friends of
Meghan’s had co-operated with People
on an article that Markle considered a
“serious attack” on him.
ANL argues Warby did not properly
represent the conversations between
Markle and his daughter before thewedding. Caldecott said in a written
submission: “The summary by the
judge... is one-sided when all texts are
considered.”
Caldecott said the suggestion in the
People article that Markle would not
take Harry and Meghan’s calls after he
was revealed to have staged pur-
ported paparazzi shots
ignored the “affectionate”
texts he had sent her. The
court was told Markle, 77,
had sent his daughter a
message offering to walk
her down the aisle even
after he had been told by
doctors he was too ill.
Meghan’s legal
team opposes the ap-
peal. The judges are
expected to give
their ruling at a
later date.Valentine Low, Kieran Gair
The Duchess of Sussex ventured into
political debate again yesterday by
sharply criticising America’s lack of
paid parental leave, arguing that the
system does not “make sense”.
She acknowledged that the royal
family steers clear of politics but argued
at a conference in New York that this
amounted to a “humanitarian issue”.
The duchess, 40, confirmed that she
had called senators to advocate for paid
leave for new parents in the US, which
is one of the only top economies that
does not guarantee its provision.
The duchess, who gave birth to a
daughter, Lilibet, in June, described the
country’s system as “wrong” and said
that campaigning for it to change is a
“really logical and obvious thing to do”.
“My husband has always said with
great privilege comes great responsibil-
ity,” she told The New York Times’s
online DealBook conference yesterday.
“But even before I had any sort of privi-
lege in my life, when my life and my
lifestyle were very, very different, I
always just stood up for what was right.
“And so I had been gone from the US
for a really long time. I lived in Canada
for seven years for work and moved to
the UK. To come back and now be a
mother of two, and to see that the US is
one of only six countries in the entire
world that doesn’t offer any form of
national paid leave just didn’t make
sense.”
Asked whether she had any anxiety
in getting involved in politics, she
replied: “I don’t see this as a political
issue, frankly. Look, there’s certainly a
precedent amongst my husband’s
family, the royal family, of not having
any involvement in politics. But I think
this is, paid leave from my standpoint is
just a humanitarian issue.”
She said that “strong” and “modern”
men recognised that they benefit from
paid parental leave as well. “It’s not just
about the mom being home,” she said.
“What it does, and... how it connects
you as a family unit, is really key.”
She said she grew up “clipping cou-
pons” to save money on food and added
that she never buys items online with-
out finding a promotional code first.
The duchess said that what
women and women of colour in the
US have experienced “is still stag-
gering”, adding: “But I think that
we’re making strides in the right
direction. A lot of that
comes down to, as we
said, men being part of
the conversation, but
also women being able
to support each other.”The duchess called
the system wrong