Meghan finally admits collaborating with 'Finding Freedom' authors; tells court she didn't remember

After denying it on several occasions over the past year that she or her husband Prince Harry collaborated with the "Finding Freedom" authors, Meghan Markle told the court that she had forgotten that she gave her PR team the instructions to do it.

In her privacy suit against a newspaper for publishing excerpts of her letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle, the defendants had argued that Meghan herself violated her privacy when she collaborated with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors of her and Harry's authorised biography "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family." The Duchess of Sussex previously strenuously denied that she and Harry provided any information to the "relentlessly flattering" book. However, she faced a major legal setback on Tuesday and had to admit to the contrary after Jason Knauf, their former press secretary revealed their private discussions about the matter to the Court of Appeal.

Knauf, who now works for Meghan's in-laws Prince William and Kate Middleton, made a statement to the court saying: "The book was discussed directly with the duchess multiple times in person and over email. The duke and duchess authorised specific co-operation in writing in December 2018." He also revealed that he had warned her about putting the authors in touch with her friends noting that "being able to say hand on heart that we did not facilitate access will be important," and offered to meet the writers himself.

Knauf exchanged a series of emails and messages about the matter with both Harry and Meghan. In a two-page email, the Duchess suggested to him regarding his impending meeting with the authors, "when you sit down with them it may be helpful to have some background reminders so I've included them below just in case," and added the list of questions, topic areas, and briefing points. The detailed briefing also included a clarification on the "tiaragate," an alleged disagreement during a meeting she had with Queen Elizabeth II to try on a tiara for her royal wedding

After Knauf's revelations, Meghan backtracked on her previous stand and apologised to the court for forgetting her involvement with the book. The 40-year-old told the court in a written statement, "In the light of the information and documents that Mr. Knauf has provided, I accept that Mr. Knauf did provide some information to the authors for the book and that he did so with my knowledge."

"When I approved [that] passage, I did not have the benefit of seeing these emails and I apologise to the court for the fact that I had not remembered these exchanges at the time. I had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court," she added.

The former actress said she had agreed with Knauf that her meeting with the authors would be "inappropriate." She added that if she had remembered telling her aide to brief the authors, she "would have been more than happy" to tell it to the court as it would "strongly support" her privacy case.

She further clarified that the emails made "no reference to the letter, let alone the contents of the letter" to her estranged father which is the centre of her lawsuit.