Duchess of Sussex's privacy trial delayed despite her father warning he 'could be dead tomorrow'

The Duchess of Sussex’s privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday has been delayed until next autumn for "confidential” reasons, despite her father arguing that he “could be dead tomorrow”.

The Duchess is suing the owner of the newspaper for publishing extracts from a "private and confidential" letter she sent her father Thomas Markle in 2018, claiming it was a breach of her privacy and copyright.

Mr Markle was expected to give evidence in the trial, scheduled for January, but a High Court judge has granted an application by the Duchess's lawyers to adjourn the hearing until "much later next year".

Mr Justice Warby said that the "primary basis" for the delay was sought on "a confidential ground".

A spokesman for the Duchess, 39, refused to be drawn on the reasons for her application to postpone, which was not opposed by the newspaper. But it did ask the judge to consider Mr Markle's situation, saying he is "elderly and sick" and still wants to give evidence at the trial.

In a witness statement lodged before the court, Mr Markle - who suffers from a heart condition, shortness of breath and is pre-diabetic - urged for the trial to go ahead “as quickly as possible”.

“None of my male relatives have ever lived beyond 80 years of age. I am a realist and I could die tomorrow. The sooner this case takes place the better,” he said.

“I am clinically obese and I have gained more weight during the past few months because I have been unable to leave my house to take any exercise.

“I don’t know what the position will be like in several months' time.

“This case is causing me anxiety and I want to get it over with as quickly as possible”.

Lawyers for the Duchess also applied for permission to appeal against a previous ruling that allowed the Mail on Sunday to include the tell-all biography Finding Freedom in its defence.

Master Francesca Kaye ruled in September that the 350 page book could be included as evidence after the newspaper successfully argued it was proof the Duchess permitted details of her life to be shared with the authors.

Attempting to overturn the decision, Jane Phillips, for the Duchess, argued: "The new case ought not to have been allowed.

"It was speculative, it was unsubstantiated by evidence and it was inherently implausible and, we say most importantly, it was bad in law."

She added that the new case was "not only a stab in the dark, but it was a stab in the dark in the wrong room".

But Mr Justice Warby denied the request to appeal, meaning the book on the Sussexes departure from the Royal Family will form part of the newspaper’s defence when the trial resumes later next year.

Handing down his decision on delaying the trial until late next year, Mr Justice Warby told the court: "The right decision in all the circumstances is to grant the application to adjourn.

"That means that the trial date of January 11 2021 will be vacated and the trial will be refixed for a new date in the autumn."

He added: "I'm confident that we'll be able to find a time in the autumn in October or November in which the trial can be conducted."

The next hearing in the ongoing legal case will be in January when the Duchess’ legal team will argue for a summary judgment, which can be brought when one party believes it has an overwhelmingly strong case.

The Duchess’s legal team has said it does not believe that the Mail on Sunday’s case has a chance of succeeding and there is no “compelling reason” for trial.