Meghan Markle Slams Tabloid for 'Vicious' Attempt to Publish Identities of Her Friends Who Want to Remain Anonymous

Over a year ago, several of Meghan Markle‘s friends, under the condition of anonymity, spoke out about lies and untruths that had been published about her over the years.

Now, the names of Meghan‘s friends are at risk of being published by a British tabloid and she has released a statement about this.

“Associated Newspapers, the owner of The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, is threatening to publish the names of five women—five private citizens—who made a choice on their own to speak anonymously with a U.S. media outlet more than a year ago, to defend me from the bullying behavior of Britain’s tabloid media,” her statement reads. “These five women are not on trial, and nor am I. The publisher of the Mail on Sunday is the one on trial. It is this publisher that acted unlawfully and is attempting to evade accountability; to create a circus and distract from the point of this case—that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully published my private letter,” the Duchess said in a statement (via The Telegraph). If you don’t know, is suing the publishers for publishing a private letter she wrote to her father.

The Duchess continued, “Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy. Both the Mail on Sunday and the court system have their names on a confidential schedule, but for the Mail on Sunday to expose them in the public domain for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain is vicious and poses a threat to their emotional and mental wellbeing. The Mail on Sunday is playing a media game with real lives. I respectfully ask the court to treat this legal matter with the sensitivity it deserves, and to prevent the publisher of the Mail on Sunday from breaking precedent and abusing the legal process by identifying these anonymous individuals – a privilege that these newspapers in fact rely upon to protect their own unnamed sources.”

The tabloid responded saying it had, “absolutely no intention” of publishing the identities of the friends, but they wanted their identities “properly considered by the court.”

“Their evidence is at the heart of the case and we see no reason why their identities should be kept secret,” the statement added.