Meghan Markle wins half-sister’s defamation lawsuit as judge dismisses case
Global News
A Florida judge ruled that Samantha Markle — half-sister to Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex — was not defamed by her royal half-sibling's remarks.
A judge in Florida permanently dismissed a US$75,000 (about C$101,250) defamation lawsuit on Tuesday filed against Meghan Markle by her half-sister, Samantha Markle.
The case, in which Samantha argued The Duchess of Sussex defamed her in several public interviews, was dismissed with prejudice by U.S. District Judge Charlene Honeywell.
According to the legal documents, the case was thrown out after Samantha, 59, failed to produce any defamatory statements for a third time. Her previous attempts to sue Meghan, 43, for defamation were dismissed in 2022 and 2023.
Samantha, who shares Thomas Markle as a father along with Meghan, filed her civil suit against Meghan over claims that the former actor minimized their relationship and exposed Samantha to “humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale.”
She alleged Meghan made defamatory statements about her during Prince Harry and Meghan’s 2020 televised Oprah Winfrey interview and in their 2020 biography Finding Freedom.
In her lawsuits, Samatha has tried to poke holes in what she described as her half-sibling’s “false rags-to-royalty narrative.”
At the time, Meghan told Winfrey she grew up as “an only child.” Samantha took issue with the statement and told the court it made she and her half-sister falsely appear like “virtual strangers.” Meghan also told Winfrey her half-sister changed her surname back to Markle only after Meghan had begun dating the Duke of Sussex.
When Honeywell dismissed Samantha’s lawsuit in 2022, the judge said Meghan’s comments were not defamatory.
