This post has been updated since it was originally published to include recent facts.
The Duchess of Sussex has won a U.S. court case against her half sister, Samantha Markle, after a Florida judge dismissed the defamation lawsuit. Samantha alleged that her estranged sister spread “demonstrably false and malicious lies” about her.
Meghan Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, was called to give evidence against her in the defamation case. Her estranged half sister was seeking $75,000 from Meghan and demanded a trial by jury. According to reports, Samantha, 58, called on the Duke of Sussex, 38, to give a filmed deposition, under oath. Although Samantha and Meghan’s father Thomas Markle, 78, was reportedly happy to give evidence against her, we don’t think Meghan’s husband was quite so forthcoming! For what it’s worth, the Duchess of Sussex gave her own deposition too, as her request to have the case dismissed and avoid giving evidence was denied.
READ MORE: Meghan Markle’s Father Is Reportedly Willing To Give Evidence Against Her In Lawsuit—Is He Serious?!
Meghan Markle's Half-Sister Tried To Sue Her For Defamation
Samantha filed the lawsuit against the 41-year-old mom-of-two in March 2022, claiming that she made "demonstrably false and malicious statements" about her "rags to royalty" life in her tell-all Oprah interview that aired in March 2021 which went out to "roughly 50 million people in 17 countries."
In court documents obtained by TMZ, Samantha claimed that the explosive sit-down interview actually "hurt" the sales of her tell-all autobiography, The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister — Part 1, which she has since tried to defend the title of, telling viewers on Fox Nation's Tucker Carlson Today that it was the media who coined the 'Princess Pushy' term, and not her. As per the lawsuit, she alleged that the interview "hurt sales of her autobiography, prevented her from getting jobs and caused emotional and mental distress."
Samantha accused her half-sister of launching a "premeditated campaign to destroy" her and her father's reputations, claiming she tried to ruin their credibility so "they could not interfere with or contradict the false narrative and fairy tale life story concocted by the defendant."
She then questioned her sister's "rags to royalty" narrative, claiming that she made it seem like she grew up in "virtual poverty," but in actuality, that couldn't have been further from the truth, as she said that their father sent her to "elite and expensive private schools," and also paid for "dance and acting classes." Samantha said that this, therefore, didn't match up with what Meghan previously said about her education, as she also claimed that she had to work throughout her college years in order to pay for her Northwestern University education herself.
The lawsuit also mentioned Meghan's comment to Oprah about not seeing her sister in "at least 18 [or] 19 years," as well as how the pair have actually only met a "handful of times," both of which, Samantha said, are untrue. "This is false. Samantha spent time with [the] defendant on a regular basis throughout her childhood and even lived in the same apartment house with [the] defendant for a period of time," the lawsuit stated.
"Samantha picked up Meghan from school; took Meghan for ice cream and to the mall regularly, and spent many family holidays with the defendant. Meghan's father was Meghan's primary caregiver and Meghan and Samantha saw each other regularly."
How Did Meghan Markle Respond To Samantha Markle's Lawsuit?
The Duchess only responded to her half-sister's lawsuit through her legal team. "This baseless and absurd lawsuit is just a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior," Michael Kump, Meghan's lawyer, previously said in a statement to TMZ. "We will give it the minimum attention necessary, which is all it deserves," he continued.
As we mentioned earlier, Meghan filed a motion in September 2022 to stop depositions in the case, although the Florida judge, Charlene Edwards Honeywell, dismissed the motion, ruling that Meghan "does not show that unusual circumstances justify the requested stay, or that prejudice or an undue burden will result if the court does not impose a stay." She added: "Defendant Markle does not satisfy the high standard required to stay discovery pending the resolution of a dispositive motion."
Florida Judge Set A Date For Trial
According to reports, Honeywell set a trial date of October 2nd, 2023 to take place in her Tampa, Florida courtroom. Meghan's sister also found even more issues with the Duchess, particularly with some of the things that were written in Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand's book, Finding Freedom. Samantha alleges that the book disparages her for losing custody of her children.
However, Meghan's lawyers have argued that she can't be held accountable for anything inside a book she didn't write, despite the many rumors that suggested that she and Prince Harry actually had a lot of say in what was written.
Judge Honeywell Dismisses Samantha's Defamation Case Against Meghan
On Friday, March 31, the Duchess of Sussex won the court battle against her estranged half sister after Honeywell dismissed the defamation lawsuit. Meghan's legal team was able to successfully argue that the case should be thrown out because they claim that she did not deny having a half sister and that her opinions and recollections of growing up were not "proper subject matter" for litigation in court.
Honeywell agreed that since Finding Freedom was not written by the Duchess, it could not form part of the claim. The judge added that Meghan's statements were simply an expression of opinion and were therefore "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. 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," she said.
Honeywell stated the claim that Meghan told Oprah she had only met her half-sister "a handful of times" was "nowhere to be found in the interview transcript." However, Meghan's allegation that Samantha had only changed her surname to Markle after the Duchess started dating Prince Harry to "cash in on her newfound fame" was found to be "explicitly contradicted" by the transcript. We bet Meghan's happy the case was dismissed!
READ MORE: Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Will NOT Be In The Coronation Procession, Leaked Plans Show
