Meghan Markle is begging a British court this week to stop a newspaper from publishing the identities of the five friends who defended her on the condition of anonymity to an American magazine.

Fox News reported that Meghan made this request in her ongoing lawsuit against the Daily Mail and its parent company for publishing a letter she wrote to her father that she’s arguing was “private and confidential.”

She claimed in court that the newspaper is threatening to reveal the names of five women who spoke to People anonymously.

The women’s condition of anonymity has reportedly been called into question in the wake of their names being revealed in confidential court documents regarding this lawsuit.

“For the Mail on Sunday to expose them in the public domain for no reason other than clickbait and commercial gain is vicious and poses a threat to their emotional and mental well-being,’’ Meghan said.

“The Mail on Sunday is playing a media game with real lives.”

The newspaper fired back by saying it had “no intention’’ of publishing the names this past weekend.

However, the publication added the court needs to decide what anonymity the five women should be entitled to.

“Their evidence is at the heart of the case, and we see no reason why their identities should be kept secret,″ a newspaper said in a statement.

“That is why we told the duchess’s lawyers last week that the question of their confidentiality should be properly considered by the Court.”

The newspaper has argued that it had the right to publish the letter that Meghan had written to her father, Thomas Markle, because it did so in response to a “one-sided” article in People Magazine that included an interview with the five “close friends.”

Since this article mentioned the letter, the newspaper is stating that it was in the public domain and therefore could be published.

In her statement released on Thursday, Meghan accused the newspaper of trying to create a distraction, claiming that the five friends chose to speak to People on their own.

“These five women are not on trial, and nor am I,’’ she said.

“The publisher of the Mail on Sunday is the one on trial. It is this publisher that acted unlawfully and is attempting to evade accountability; to create a circus and distract from the point of this case – that the Mail on Sunday unlawfully published my private letter. Each of these women is a private citizen, young mother, and each has a basic right to privacy.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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