Prince Harry and Meghan Markle high-tailed it out of the UK earlier this year and headed for the sunny non-British shores of Montecito, California. As Meghan said goodbye to the UK, I don’t know if she did the ol’ Hannah Montana bittersweet kiss-and-wave, or if she hissed something about never eating another damn scone in her life. But we do know that there was one thing she wouldn’t be able to leave back in the UK as her private jet crossed over international waters. And that’s her ongoing lawsuit with The Mail on Sunday. Meghan threatened to sue The Mail on Sunday, then followed through with it, after The Daily Mail published a private letter she wrote to her father Thomas Markle. Now we’re learning that she will actually get a bit of a break from her lawsuit. How long? Oh, just nine months, to be exact.

Deadline says the news of Meghan’s lawsuit break comes from London Evening Standard court reporter Tristian Kirk. Meghan’s fight against The Mail on Sunday has been chugging along this year, and it was expected to go to trial either later this year or early next year. But Tristian reports the earliest a trial is going to happen will be Fall 2021. And that’s because Meghan allegedly asked the judge for a nine-month delay, which The Mail on Sunday agreed to. And it’s for a confidential reason that only Meghan, the judge, and The Mail on Sunday know.

Breaking: The Duchess of Sussex's privacy trial against the Mail on Sunday has been delayed by 9 months, to autumn next year.

High Court judge agreed to the delay – not opposed by the Mail's publishers – after hearing confidential reasons from Meghan's lawyers why it was needed.

— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) October 29, 2020

I can’t speculate on why Meghan might want to check out of a high-stress privacy lawsuit trial until next fall. If it were me, I’d probably just want a break from 2020. I’d be begging the judge to just let me enjoy my pathetic shred of a socially-distanced indoor Christmas and subsequent depressing New Year’s Eve party on Zoom without having to also think about objections and overruled’s and all that. But of course the internet has turned into part-time detectives, and have their own theories about why Meghan needs nine months off. Of course, one cooked-up theory has to do with a possible pregnancy announcement.

Express UK published that bookies have placed 4-5 odds on Meghan and Harry announcing a possible second child by the end of 2020. Earlier this month, Cosmopolitan noted that some people on the internet speculated there might be something up after Meghan and Harry were spotted having dinner with Katharine McPhee and David Foster, with the only real clue being that Meghan decided to wear a loose-fitting coat.

Then again, there is a chance that Meghan needs a nine month break to help Harry deal with his own shit against The Mail on Sunday. Vanity Fair reports that Harry is threatening to sue The Mail on Sunday over a story The Daily Mail published about his relationship with the British military. Harry was made Captain General of the Marines in 2017 by Queen Elizabeth, who gave him the title from Prince Philip, who had it for 64 years. But Harry stepped away from that position earlier this year, when he and Meghan announced they’d be leaving their jobs as senior royals and moving to California. They spoke to a Major General Julian Thompson, who criticized Harry’s choice to move overseas. Another source claimed that Lord Dannatt, a former Chief of the General Staff, sent Harry a letter about requesting more support for Britain’s military community, which Harry allegedly ignored. Harry has threatened to sue for what he believes is a gross mischaracterization. An aide to Harry told VF:

“To say he has not been in touch with the Marines is not the case. He had many conversations with former colleagues during the lockdown and is in regular contact with a lot of military personnel on a private and personal basis.”

The only thing is, Harry hasn’t officially sued them yet, so how busy can he really be? Hmmmm. Wait – maybe this nine-month break is baby-based, but just not in the way we think it is. Maybe Meghan and Harry caught Nine Months on cable one afternoon, and in between marveling at Hugh Grant’s physics-defying hair, they thought, “You know what? Nine months would be a nice break from this lawsuit bullshit.” And the judge agreed to it, because anyone with a heart knows it’s practically inhumane to make a person think about Thomas Markle’s shitty antics for such an extended period of time.