UK royal Meghan awarded $630,000 in costs after court privacy win

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Meghan, Britain's Duchess of Sussex, was awarded 450,000 pounds ($630,000) on Tuesday as a provisional payment towards her legal costs after she won a privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday which had printed extracts of a letter she wrote to her father.

Last month, a judge at London's High Court ruled the tabloid had breached her privacy and infringed her copyright by publishing parts of the five-page letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, who she fell out with on the eve of her wedding to Queen Elizabeth's grandson, Prince Harry.

Judge Mark Warby ruled in her favour without holding a trial, saying the articles were a clear breach of privacy after the paper argued the duchess had intended the letter's contents to become public and it formed part of a media strategy.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Warby refused the paper permission to appeal that decision, saying he saw "no real prospect" that the Court of Appeal would reach a different conclusion. However, the paper is able to apply directly to the court.

The court was told Meghan's legal team was seeking more than 1.5 million pounds in legal fees, with half the amount to be paid within 14 days, a sum the paper described as "disproportionate".

Warby agreed to make an interim costs order of 450,000 pounds, saying the final sum "may well be considerably more than that" after other outstanding issues were resolved at later hearings.