A federal court in Florida ruled in Meghan Markle’s favor in a recent lawsuit brought against her by her half-sister Samantha Markle. Meghan had asked the court to dismiss Samantha’s defamation lawsuit, and the court agreed.
Samantha launched a failed $75,000 lawsuit against Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex who is currently worth $60 million, for defamation, The New York Post reported. The lawsuit stemmed from the infamous interview Oprah Winfrey conducted with Meghan and her husband Prince Harry after the couple resigned from the royal duties in the UK.It aired on CBS on March 7, 2021.
During the interview, Meghan recalled growing up as an only child. According to Samantha, this was defamation, as she said she grew up with her half-sister. They share the same father.
“This baseless and absurd lawsuit is just a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior. We will give it the minimum attention necessary, which is all it deserves,” Meghan’s lawyer said when the lawsuit was filed.
Inside the Lawsuit
Meghan’s claims of being an only child were reviewed by District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell as her opinions and “not capable of being proved false.”
“As a reasonable listener would understand it, Defendant merely expresses an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-siblings,” Honeywell wrote in her order. “Thus, the Court finds that Defendant’s statement is not objectively verifiable or subject to empirical proof. Plaintiff cannot plausibly disprove Defendant’s opinion of her own childhood.”
Samantha requested that her half-sister turn over private emails between Meghan and Oprah before the interview, the Duchess of Sussex fought back to those demands because it was going to violate her right to privacy.
Samantha also wanted her half-sister to sit for a deposition in the case.
At the end, the judge ruled, “the Court finds that Plaintiff has failed to plausibly allege that Defendant made a “substantially and materially false” statement.
Samantha claimed she received “humiliation and hatred” after Meghan and Prince Harry’s interview with Winfrey.
According to Samantha, Meghan has, “orchestrated the campaign to defame and destroy her sister’s and her father’s reputation and credibility in order to preserve and promote the false ‘rags-to-royalty’ narrative [Meghan] had fabricated about her life to the Royal Family and the worldwide media.”
Samantha accused Meghan of maligning her when Samantha changed back her last name – from Grant to Markle. She said Meghan suggested she did so to attach herself to the media attention Meghan was receiving when she married Harry.
What Meghan said, according to Radar, “No. She changed her last name back to Markle, and I think she [was] in her early 50s at that time, only when I started dating Harry. And so I think that says enough.”
Meghan’s Siblings
Meghan’s parents are Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle, and they got divorced when she was young.
The fact is that Meghan was not an only child — she has two siblings: Samantha and one younger half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr. But she is the only child of her mother.
Meghan did grow up primarily with her mother. She has spoken publicly about her close relationship with her mother, and how she was a supportive figure throughout her life and career.
The Oprah Interview
Prince Harry and Meghan were not paid for the Oprah interview. Oprah, on the other hand, has profited royally from the Markle family disfunction, securing “$7 million and 17 million viewers. It also validated her larger business strategy,” The Washington Post reported.
