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Meghan Markle Scores Historic Legal Win in Years-Long Case Against Tabloid: 'I Have Been Patient in the Face of Deception'

Meghan Markle has a lot to celebrate today. Her years-long privacy and copyright infringement case against the Associated Newspapers has officially come to an end, leaving her a winner.

While she originally won the trial back in February, today a London judge dismissed the media company’s appeal. (If you didn’t know, the case originated a few years ago after media outlets published private letters between Markle and her dad, Thomas.)

This morning, the court “upheld the judge’s decision that the duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter.” The judge stated, “Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”

The 40-year-old duchess reacted to her big win in a heartfelt statement. “This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what's right,” Markle said in a statement after the judgment was rendered, per People. “While this win is precedent-setting, what matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create.”

She continued, “From day one, I have treated this lawsuit as an important measure of right versus wrong. The defendant has treated it as a game with no rules," Markle said. "The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public (even during the appeal itself), making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers—a model that rewards chaos above truth. In the nearly three years since this began, I have been patient in the face of deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks.”

The big news means that the mother of two will not only be awarded damages, but also a public apology from the outlet.

Congratulations, Meghan. We’ve all been waiting for this for a long time.

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