Harry & Meghan: Legal Actions against the Media

[Pranter]

The billionaire-owned newspaper company and its Executive Editor #DanWootton have both said they will sue us if we report the allegations, which are detailed in a formal ‘Letter Before Action’ issued by lawyers acting for the Duke of Sussex.


So based on that Harry's attys have sent letter(s).


I've never heard of Byline so I wasn't sure if they were connected to a tabloid or were an independent organization.



LaRae

[Queen Claude]

Originally Posted by Pranter

Seeing rumblings today of more possible legal action being taken by Harry. Lots of discussion on Twitter. It involves Dan Wooten (......)

LaRae

Dan Wootton's partner does not work for KP. The allegation is that the partner of a KP staffer was paid by The Sun/Dan Wootton in relation to stories published in June and July 2019.

Originally Posted by Pranter

...
I've never heard of Byline so I wasn't sure if they were connected to a tabloid or were an independent organization.

LaRae

From BYLINE Investigates's youtube channel (link)

Who Guards The Guardians? Byline Investigates is a team of journalists crowd-funded to cover the stories on criminal activity within the British media, that for some reason the British media won't.

[Pranter]

Originally Posted by Queen Claude

Dan Wootton's partner does not work for KP. The allegation is that the partner of a KP staffer was paid by The Sun/Dan Wootton in relation to stories published in June and July 2019.


From BYLINE Investigates's youtube channel (link)

Pretty sure it came out months ago Wooten's partner works for KP.


LaRae

[Fem]

Originally Posted by Pranter

Pretty sure it came out months ago Wooten's partner works for KP.


LaRae

Could you provide a source of this information?

[Pranter]

It was talked about here months ago...it was discussed at length on social media outside here as well. You can probably google articles about it.


LaRae

[Denville]

If that were the case surely his partner would be suspected of being his source for stories?

[Fem]

Originally Posted by Pranter

It was talked about here months ago...it was discussed at length on social media outside here as well. You can probably google articles about it.


LaRae

I already did. And, to no one's surprise, I didn't find absolutely anything that I could call a credible source. It all comes down to a single tweet by a user FredsMother: "Dan Wootton is the boyfriend of Prince William's Press Secretary. Wootton is the go-to and mouth piece for Kensington Palace.(...)" (link: https://twitter.com/motherfreds/stat...81542472626177). That's why I asked if you have any source of this information, because: a) nothing points at it being true; b) there's no other source than this tweet that you can see above.

The only other time Dan Wootton is mentioned as someone close to KP's staff is an "article" in Byline (can be read here: https://www.bylineinvestigates.com/m...-tried-to-bury) that states, and I quote: "It follows months of public speculation about the close connection between Mr Wootton and the Sussexes’ former Communications Secretary Christian Jones, who continues to be employed in the role by Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and whose partner is freelance publicist Callum Stephens, who is also a friend to Wootton." But that's not even about Dan Wootton's partner, just his friends, who are apparently a couple.

So forgive me for asking for a source but it seems like a completely natural thing when someone makes an accusation like that and does not give a source.

[Pranter]

I just remember the discussion here and elsewhere. It's been several months ago so any links etc would be in whatever thread here etc.

LaRae

[Lumutqueen]

You’d think if Dan was romantically linked to dating Christian Jones, we’d know about it too. But not a peep on any google search, not even a TRF discussion that I could find.

[Pranter]

Originally Posted by Lumutqueen

You’d think if Dan was romantically linked to dating Christian Jones, we’d know about it too. But not a peep on any google search, not even a TRF discussion that I could find.

Most likely it's a deleted thread or post series. I just remember it being talked about here.



LaRae

[Fem]

Originally Posted by Pranter

I just remember the discussion here and elsewhere. It's been several months ago so any links etc would be in whatever thread here etc.

LaRae

The TRF search for "Dan Wootton" does not find any kind of discussion about his alleged partner, working for KP. I also dived deeper into Google, not even one article on the subject in question, so if you'd be so kind and provide a source for that information, I'd be grateful.

Originally Posted by Lumutqueen

You’d think if Dan was romantically linked to dating Christian Jones, we’d know about it too. But not a peep on any google search, not even a TRF discussion that I could find.

I also found this, from usatoday/LaineyGossip: "(...)stemming from the friendship between Duchess Kate of Cambridge's press spokesman, Christian Jones, and Dan Wootton, a reporter for The Sun, the largest-selling tabloid in Britain." (of course also link to the article: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entert...ed/4433399002/), but a big, fat nothing on any kind of romantic relationship.

I think it's worth to add too, that Dan Wootton denied this is true and Jones is his source in a tweet: "The theories here about how I got the Megxit story and who may have leaked it to me are totally untrue and highly irresponsible.(...)"
https://twitter.com/danwootton/statu...72178308984832

[Hallo girl]

I don't know anything about who is partner with who but is it not likely that the whole circle of press secs, comms people, journalists are all friends or at least know each other from previous lives/ careers. They are quite often former journalists. Also would anybody make it that obvious that they were the leak. Just IMO obviously.

[poppy7]

Originally Posted by Hallo girl

I don't know anything about who is partner with who but is it not likely that the whole circle of press secs, comms people, journalists are all friends or at least know each other from previous lives/ careers. They are quite often former journalists. Also would anybody make it that obvious that they were the leak. Just IMO obviously.

Quite. It is an incestuous circle. Kinda like politicians, journalists and their advisors. However, I would find it unlikely that the Cambridges would hire a partner of a well know tabloid royal hack. Just not their style.

[Ista]

Several posts that were either off topic or which involved bickering between members have been removed. Going forward, please stay on topic, and avoid getting drawn into repetitive back and forth squabbling.

In addition, when making a statement, please cite the source for the information as set out in the forum rules:

---Whenever possible, opinions should be based on factual information obtained from reputable sources and should be backed up by references to those sources. The moderators reserve the right to delete posts containing the more fanciful types of gossip and speculation, whether they originate in gossip magazines and websites or are simply fabricated.---

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[evolvingdoors]

[...]

They’re suing Splash again.
This time for the Meghan and Archie Canada pics.

https://extra.ie/2020/06/24/entertai...mpression=true

ETA: I was gonna leave it at this but I realized why I am so upset about this lawsuit, the fact they have dragged their infant son into their lawsuits trigger happy life. Despicable!

[Denville]

Originally Posted by evolvingdoors

[...]

They’re suing Splash again.
This time for the Meghan and Archie Canada pics.

https://extra.ie/2020/06/24/entertai...mpression=true

ETA: I was gonna leave it at this but I realized why I am so upset about this lawsuit, the fact they have dragged their infant son into their lawsuits trigger happy life. Despicable!

What is wrong with that? Their child is entitled to privacy more than they are...as tehy are public figures. I dont think that they handle these issues very well but still, if they want to sue on behalf of their child, i think they can do so.

[evolvingdoors]

Originally Posted by Denville

What is wrong with that? Their child is entitled to privacy more than they are...as tehy are public figures. I dont think that they handle these issues very well but still, if they want to sue on behalf of their child, i think they can do so.

He has privacy, he will have even more if his parents will cease to use him for PR purposes.
In the year since he has been born the majority of times we have seen this kid was by pictures and videos his own parents published.
No one forced them to do a video with him for his birthday!

You do not scream you want your kid to have privacy but than use him for publicity sake.
This lawsuit is no exception.
Any celebrity will tell you the only way to disappear from public radar is to totally disappear from public radar, drop off completely. You don’t tweet, you don’t leak information to your mouthpieces and use PR companies, you don’t do PR videos at all.
And most of all: you don’t file so many lawsuits!

Can they sue on behalf of the child? Sure.
Should they in this case? No.

This lawsuit is foolish, most of all because there is no evidence any privacy was breached.

And if Meghan felt so compelled to sue, she could have done so solo without adding her one year old innocent child name to the lawsuit.
This is what seeking attention looks like.

[Lumutqueen]

I question this situation because

A; if these papers were lodged in a U.K. court nearly 3 months ago why are we just hearing of it now? Not a single British paper has reported on this.

B; Isn’t Meghan’s title wrong in “court documents”?

C; How can they sue in an English court when at the time they weren’t here and they’re also not here now?

[Denville]

Originally Posted by evolvingdoors

He has privacy, he will have even more if his parents will cease to use him for PR purposes.
In the year since he has been born the majority of times we have seen this kid was by pictures and videos his own parents published.
No one forced them to do a video with him for his birthday!

You do not scream you want your kid to have privacy but than use him for publicity sake.
This lawsuit is no exception.
Any celebrity will tell you the only way to disappear from public radar is to totally disappear from public radar, drop off completely. You don’t tweet, you don’t leak information to your mouthpieces and use PR companies, you don’t do PR videos at all.
And most of all: you don’t file so many lawsuits!

Can they sue on behalf of the child? Sure.
Should they in this case? No.

This lawsuit is foolish, most of all because there is no evidence any privacy was breached.

And if Meghan felt so compelled to sue, she could have done so solo without adding her one year old innocent child name to the lawsuit.
This is what seeking attention looks like.

IIRC there were pictures of Archie with her, out walking, soon after they moved to Canada...I agree that they haven't given a clear message.
. I've often said that they claim Archie is a private person and yet they put out pics on Social media, they did that video on his birthday which I coudl not see the point of.
I agree that they keep giving mixed messages, but all the same, Archie IS a baby and should not be photographed except by his parents consent. Its possible that they have to put the suit in his name.. I dont know abot the law but that is a possibility...

[HighGoalHighDreams]

Originally Posted by Denville

IIRC there were pictures of Archie with her, out walking, soon after they moved to Canada...I agree that they haven't given a clear message.
. I've often said that they claim Archie is a private person and yet they put out pics on Social media, they did that video on his birthday which I coudl not see the point of.
I agree that they keep giving mixed messages, but all the same, Archie IS a baby and should not be photographed except by his parents consent. Its possible that they have to put the suit in his name.. I dont know abot the law but that is a possibility...

If the Sussexes share your sentiment, they are going to be deeply disappointed by this aspect of their move to the United States. (I realize this particular alleged dispute is about pictures taken in Canada.) One major trade-off they have made with their move is that Archie is far less protected in terms of media exposure. They will find that pictures of him taken in public in the US are fair game in our media. They will face a simple, if not an easy, choice: hide him away as he grows up, or accept that he will be photographed and those pictures will be published freely here.