What has Jason Knauf accused Meghan Markle of?
Knauf has suggested that Meghan hand-wrote a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, knowing it may be leaked to the press.
In his witness statement, Knauf said: “When the Duchess was considering how to handle Mr Markle’s increasing public interventions – both for concerns about his welfare and also to protect her reputation – she explored options for written communication that might convince him to stop giving interviews, but that could also set the record straight if he gave them to the media.”
He recalled, “She asked me to review an electronic draft of the letter saying, ‘obviously everything I have drafted is with the understanding that it could be leaked so I have been meticulous in my word choice but please do let me know if anything stands out for you as a liability’.
“She also asked a specific question regarding addressing Mr Markle as ‘daddy’ in the letter, saying ‘given I’ve only ever called him daddy it may make sense to open as such (despite him being less than paternal), and in the unfortunate event that it leaked it would pull at the heartstrings’.”
The duchess has since apologised since Knauf’s witness statement, saying she had “not remembered these exchanges” and added: “I had absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court.”