Judge grants 9-month delay to trial in Meghan Markle privacy lawsuit

LONDON —  A British judge Thursday granted a request by Meghan Markle to postpone the trial of her privacy lawsuit against the publisher of a tabloid that ran portions of a letter she wrote to her father.

During a hearing in London, Judge Mark Warby granted the duchess of Sussex’s application to delay the trial for about nine months, from a scheduled Jan. 11 start date to next fall. The exact date will be set later.

The decision followed a hearing held in private, and Warby said the reason for the delay request is confidential.

Markle, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers over five articles that appeared in February 2019 in the Mail on Sunday and on the MailOnline website. The articles published portions of a handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, after her marriage to Britain’s Prince Harry (who also holds the title of the duke of Sussex) in 2018.

Associated Newspapers is contesting the claim at the High Court in London.

Early this year, the duke and duchess announced that they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they called unbearable intrusions by and racist attitudes of the British media. They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara.