Podcast 113 – Meghan Markle & Mellody Hobson discuss gender equity & Meghan’s privacy case has reached the UK Court of Appeal

Meghan looked good and she said,  when asked,  that she was feeling very good as she participated in person at the New York Time’s DealBook Summit alongside Mellody Hobson. They were being questioned by the journalist and founder and editor of DealBook,  Andrew Ross Sorkin.  The topic up for discussion was How can women reach economic and professional parity? 

Mellody Hobson is President and co-CEO of Ariel Investments which manages millions of dollars of investments. In 2017, she became the first African American woman to head The Economic Club of Chicago and this year she hit another milestone for women and for black women in particular, in becoming the chairwoman of Starbucks. 

During the 30 minutes discussion, Andrew Ross Sorkin sped over various topics with the ladies both on the issue of gender equity and then,  taking advantage of having Meghan present,  he asked her about various personal issues being talked about by the media right now, including:

Meghan's involvement in the Paid Leave campaign in the U.S. and whether she was anxious about seen as being involved in a political issue;Meghan's views on social media and media in general; andThe progress of Meghan's U.K. court case versus Associated Newspapers. This segway’s nicely into my next piece of news from this week.

The UK Court of Appeal case in which Associated Newspapers, owners of the UK newspapers the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, and Metro amongst others, appealed the judgment in which they were found to have breached Meghan’s right to privacy and breach of copyright,  when they published extracts from her post wedding letter to her father Thomas back in 2019. 

Newspaper lawyers on behalf of Thomas, who is not a party to the case (and as we all know is not shy from giving multiple interviews to the press during which he invariably throws insults at Meghan and Harry) claim that Thomas only handed his copy of Meghan’s letter to the U.K. Mail newspaper in response to how he felt he was wrongly portrayed in a 2019 People Magazine article. The newspaper takes the position that Mr. Markel is the poor victim in the story , was misrepresented in the People Magazine article,  and assert that Thomas was justified in defending his "reputation."

The UK appeal is being lived streamed, with the newspaper starting to put in their arguments. What they have to show is that the trial judge, Justice Warby, was wrong to have decided the case using the court’s summary judgment mechanism as opposed to sending the case for a full trial,  when witnesses including possibly Meghan and Thomas would be called to testify.  The newspaper has to show that there is a 'triable issue' requiring the Court to hold a full-trial to be able to determine the outcome of the case.

As of today, there are at least two more days of arguments left,  which will include time for Meghan’s lawyer to present their reply submissions. 

I have put the link to the videos of the live stream via YouTube on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/  and on my twitter account @jeanettesongolo https://twitter.com/JeanetteSongolo. You can also find the links at the UK High Court / Court of Appeal website. 

An interesting side story is that the original trial judge in the case

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/