AceShowbiz - Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been awarded $629,000 (£450,000) in interim legal fees in her invasion of privacy battle with U.K. tabloid editors.

Prince Harry's wife successfully sued officials at Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and sister website MailOnline, after the 2019 publication of excerpts of a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

London's High Court Judge Mark Warby ruled in the Duchess' favour last month (Feb21), and her attorneys subsequently sought to have her $2 million (£1.5 million) legal expenses covered by the defendants.

They requested an interim payment of $1 million (£750,000), but were granted the lower figure during a virtual hearing on Tuesday (02Mar21) when Judge Warby also denied the defence team's appeal regarding his February decision, forcing Associated Newspapers' lawyers to pursue any challenge in the separate Court of Appeal although he warned that would have "no real prospect" of success.

Another hearing is set to take place this spring (21) to determine "financial remedies" concerning the Duchess' claims for misuse of private information and infringement of data protection.

At that session, the judge will also rule on her other requests for a front-page apology and an order demanding Associated Newspapers bosses hand over or destroy any copies it holds of her letter to her dad, as well as any notes.

Although Meghan, who is expecting her second child with Prince Harry, succeeded in winning her case on the grounds of privacy, she will still have to face a limited trial to determine who owns the copyright of the letter, as defence lawyers claim she penned the five-page missive with the help of members of the communications team at the royal couple's former Kensington Palace office.

A provisional trial date has been set for 29 October.