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Lawyers for Associated Newspapers argued during the original privacy lawsuit case that Meghan was trying to manipulate the narrative around her to be more positive, and that she gave or enabled \"them [the authors of Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand] to be given a great deal of other information about her personal life, in order to set out her own version of events in a way that is favorable to her.\"

Meghan's lawyers categorically refuted those claims at the time and Meghan did so again Wednesday in a new response to the Associated Newspapers' appeal.

\"It is untrue that my husband and I [or either of us] spoke to the authors for the purposes of the Book. Nor did we meet with them 'in about late 2018,' far less did we do so at any time to discuss 'the ways in which [we] would cooperate in the writing of the Book'(as also alleged. I note that this is effectively confirmed by Mr. Knauf at paragraph 18 of his Witness Statement,\" she wrote in a 22-page response to Knauf.

Meghan also stated she did not believe the letter was “likely to reach the public domain,\" but \"merely recognized that this was a possibility given the extraordinary level of media attention and unusual lens we were all under.\"

\"To be clear, I did not want any of it to be published, and wanted to ensure that the risk of it being manipulated or misleadingly edited was minimized, were it to be exploited,\" she said, adding that writing a letter was the only \"viable option\" for communicating with her father due to the media intrusion into their relationship.

Meghan also said in her response that it was only until Thomas Markle began including the royal family in his media attacks that senior members of the family expressed concern over wanting him to be stopped. She said she was \"eager to please\" them, and that the situation was putting significant pressure on Harry.

She said she decided to write the letter in accordance with advice she received from two senior family members, who are not named.

A final judgment in the appeal is expected soon.

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