The Duke of Sussex calls the British tabloid Mail on Sunday 'malicious' for spreading 'relentless propaganda' against his Duchess 'with no thought to the consequences' over the past year.

• Oct 2, 2019

AceShowbiz - Prince Harry is taking on the British media over editors' treatment of his wife, the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.

In a rare statement, the British royal reveals he has filed a lawsuit over misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018, claiming the Mail on Sunday in particular has caused his wife and members of their family pain with false published information.

"My wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences - a ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year, throughout her pregnancy and while raising our newborn son," Harry's statement reads.

"There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face - as so many of you can relate to - I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been. Because in today's digital age, press fabrications are repurposed as truth across the globe..."

Prince Harry adds: "Up to now, we have been unable to correct the continual misrepresentations - something that these select media outlets have been aware of and have therefore exploited on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. It is for this reason we are taking legal action, a process that has been many months in the making. The positive coverage of the past week from these same publications exposes the double standards of this specific press pack that has vilified her almost daily for the past nine months; they have been able to create lie after lie at her expense simply because she has not been visible while on maternity leave...

"For these select media this is a game, and one that we have been unwilling to play from the start. I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long. To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in... We won't and can't believe in a world where there is no accountability for this."

Meanwhile, Harry's legal spokesperson has also released a statement, which reads: "We have initiated legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday, and its parent company Associated Newspapers, over the intrusive and unlawful publication of a private letter written by the Duchess of Sussex, which is part of a campaign by this media group to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her, as well as her husband."

Any cash won in the case will benefit an anti-bullying charity.