Meghan Markle and Prince Harry collaborated with the book’s authors Searching for freedomTheir former press secretary Jason Knauf revealed them in a statement issued by the London Court of Appeal on Wednesday, something they have long denied.
In his explosive statement, Knauf said he attended a two-hour meeting with Omid Scobie and Caroline Durand, where Meghan provided “briefings she wanted me to share with the authors,” which included, “details about how her wedding tiara was chosen and that it was misrepresented by the media.” .
After the meeting, Knauf wrote to Megan that the book would be “a celebration of you setting the record straight on a number of fronts”.
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The allegations of Knauf, who remains close to Prince William and the CEO of his foundation, threatens to cause a hole in the repeated claims by Harry and Meghan that they were not involved. Searching for freedom. A speaker last year, for example, said that they “did not collaborate with the authors on the book, nor were they interviewed for it.”
However, in his testimony statement released today, Knauf said that Meghan and Harry “authorized specific collaboration in writing in December 2018”.
Knauf added that he advised against contacting the authors with friends of the Duchess, telling Harry “that wasn’t a good idea” and that “being able to say by hand that we didn’t facilitate access would be important”.
However, Megan said in her response statement that when she suggested sending a blanket email to her friends asking them not to actively cooperate, Knauf advised her not to.
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Knauf sent Harry an email that he would meet with the authors to help with “factual accuracy and context”.
Harry replied, “I totally agree that we should be able to say we have nothing to do with the matter. Likewise, giving appropriate context and background to them would help to get some facts. The truth is much needed and would be appreciated, especially Regarding Markle’s wedding stuff but at the same time we can’t connect them directly to her friends.”
Knauf then contacted Megan, emailing her a list of questions from the authors.
“If I’m happy, I’ll see them later this week to set a realistic background and to provide a more recent context,” Knauf wrote.
Meghan responded that evening, saying: ‘Thank you so much for the info below – because when you’re sitting with them it can be helpful to have some background reminders, so I’ve included them below just in case. I know you’re more familiar with this than most but you help me Wherever I can. I appreciate your support – please let me know if you want me to fill in any other blanks.”
Then Knauf included “the brief points she wanted me to share with the authors at my meeting.”
Knauf says these briefing points included:
“Information about how she had contact with as little of her half-siblings as possible throughout her childhood.
“She was close [for] Most of her life “is with her father and she has supported him”…despite his isolation.” She added that “media pressure collapsed on him and he began to cut press deals mediated by his daughter Samantha” and that “despite countless efforts to support him over the past two years, he has not returned They have a relationship now.”
Her view of the thinking behind a November 2016 statement about the way the media is treated.
“Her pleasure to move to Windsor.
“Details about how she chose her wedding tiara and that it was misrepresented by the media.”
Knauf then received an email from Prince Harry saying: “Also, are you planning to give them a rough idea of what you’ve been through the past two years? Media attack, cyberbullying on a different scale, Thomas Markle’s puppeteer, etc. etc. Even if they choose not to Using them, they should have heard what it was like from someone who was in the thick of it. So if you’re not planning on telling them, can I?!”
Knauf said he responded, “Of course – I never stopped!”
Knauf said Harry replied, “Oh, I hope they report it correctly. Good luck, God bless!”
Megan released a witness statement in response to Knauf’s comments, in which she admitted that she misled the court in a 2018 statement in which she said she did not know if her communications team had any input in the book.
Megan said: “In light of the information and documents Mr. Knauf provided, I agree that Mr. Knauf provided some information to the book’s authors and that he did so with my knowledge, for a meeting he was planning to have with the authors in his capacity as communications secretary. The amount of information he shared is unknown to me” .
Meghan added: “I apologize to the court for the fact that I did not remember these exchanges at the time. I had absolutely no desire or intent to mislead the defendant or the court.”
Megan added that other emails between her and Knauf clearly showed that there was “a difference between general factual information in the background that Mr. Knauf was already aware of and that I generally accepted that he needed to know his interaction with journalists where appropriate (as it was the same) Case with book background points), versus personal information about private matters.
It also shows that media inquiries of this kind were frequent and routine. Until I saw these emails, I had not thought of meeting Mr. Knauf with this journalist or anything else—those meetings and calls were Mr. Knauf’s entire job. No particular meeting came to my mind, as there was a daily deluge of media inquiries which he was tasked with handling.”
In the startling statement, Knauf also said that before Meghan wrote a letter to her father after her wedding, she had “explored written communication options that might persuade him to stop giving interviews, but that could also put things in perspective if he presented them to the media.”
When I wrote the letter, I “realized that it was possible for Mr. Markle to make the letter public” and organized it carefully so that it could not be selectively leaked.
The message was duly passed by Thomas Markle to daily Mail. Megan sued my publisher daily Mail for violating its privacy and copyrights by publishing it. She won the case, but publishers are now appealing it.
Knauf said: “She wanted to write a letter rather than an email or text message (other options she had studied and discussed with senior Royal House staff) as the letter could not be forwarded or cut and pasted to share just one small portion. As part of a series of letters on August 24, 2018 , she explained that she had thought carefully about how to prevent the message from being leaked in part or in a misleading way. She explained to me in text that she paginated the pages at the top to indicate character length (1/5, 2/5 etc.) She also deliberately ended each page with a sentence so that No page could be erroneously displayed as the end of the letter. In the event it was leaked, she wanted the full narrative as described in the letter to be understood and shared. She said she had ‘worked on every detail that could be manipulated.’
Knauf added: “The Duchess wanted to make sure that if the letter was made public, it would help make her point about the problems her father has. In a letter on August 24, she said: “If he leaks it that is in his (sic) consciousness but at least the world will know the truth. Words I can never express in public.”
In another message to Knauf revealing, Megan said, “Considering I only called him dad, it might make sense to open up like that despite him being less of a dad. And in the unfortunate case of a leak, he’d pull my heartstrings.”
Megan responded to Knauf’s statement, saying, “To be clear, I did not want any of it published, and wanted to make sure the risk of it being misleadingly manipulated or edited, if exploited, was minimized.”
The hearing is continuing.
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