Meghan Markle has applied to Britain's High Court of Justice (opens in new tab) to prevent the Mail on Sunday from publishing the names of five of her friends who gave interviews to People last year, Sky News reported (opens in new tab). In a witness statement filed Thursday as part of her ongoing lawsuit against the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, the Duchess of Sussex said that naming the friends was "malicious" and could "threaten their emotional and mental health."

Meghan's friends spoke to People on condition of anonymity in February 2019, accusing her of bullying by the British tabloid media. One friend said (opens in new tab), "It's wrong to put someone through this level of emotional trauma, let alone while pregnant." In her witness statement asking the court to preserve the anonymity of her friends, Princess Meghan wrote, "These five women are not on trial and neither am I," and that the Mail on Sunday is "creating a circus and trying to distract from the issues in this trial - the Mail on Sunday has accused me of illegally publishing my private letter."

The Duchess is suing Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy and copyright infringement for publishing a letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, in 2019. The Mail on Sunday claims that they published the letter after friends of Meghan's friends mentioned it in an article in People, and a spokesperson told The Telegraph that "their evidence is at the heart of this trial and we see no reason why their identities should be kept secret."

The spokesperson stated.

Sky News reports that Princess Meghan confidentially submitted the names of her friends to the court and the Mail on Sunday's legal team last week. In her witness statement, she said, "Both the Mail on Sunday and the court system have scheduled their names in confidence, but for the Mail on Sunday to expose them publicly for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain is malicious and a threat to their mental and emotional health. It is," he wrote.

The full text of Princess Meghan's testimony, as published by the Telegraph, is below:

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