The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has won a legal battle against her half-sister, Samantha Markle. A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the defamation lawsuit against Prince Harry’s wife, rejecting Samantha’s claim that the actress had made “disparaging, hurtful and false” remarks about her.
U.S. District Attorney Judge Charlene Honeywell dismissed the case as the plaintiff, Samantha Markle, “failed to identify any statements” that would back up her claims that Meghan had made false statements.
Meghan and Samantha share a father, and the suit was based on what the Duchess of Sussex said in the Netflix documentary series “Harry & Meghan,” her memoir “Finding Freedom,” and concerns an interview with Oprah Winfrey where Meghan said her half-sister was a “deceptive fame-seeking imposter with avaricious intentions.”
According to a report by Time magazine, Samantha sought $75,000 in damages. However, the federal judge dismissed the case with prejudice, which implied that the same allegation and claim could not be filed again. Judge Honeywell also said that the incidents mentioned in the lawsuit are just events of differing opinions. In response to the judgment, Michael Kump, Meghan’s lawyer, expressed that they were “pleased with the Court’s ruling dismissing the case.”
Interestingly, Samantha, 59, has tried twice to sue Meghan, 42; however, both the cases were dismissed. In response to the suit filed in 2023, Judge Honeywell wrote,
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.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles, are called the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The couple stepped down from royal duties four years ago and have been living with their kids in California since then.
