Meghan Markle wins defamation lawsuit against half-sister Samantha Markle
31 March 2023, 13:16
Samantha Markle's defamation case against her half-sister Meghan Markle has been dismissed.
Meghan Markle, 41, has won a defamation case bought against her by half-sister Samantha Markle, 58.
Samantha bought legal action against Prince Harry's wife, claiming $75,000 over 'accusations' made by Meghan about her in the 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview.
Samantha argued that Meghan had accused her of "malicious lies" and said that "great harm" had been inflicted on her due to the comments.
She said that she had been through "ridicule, contempt and disgrace".
However, the case was dismissed on Thursday, 30th March, as a judge said that Meghan's comments were "pure opinion" and "not capable of being proved false".
Samantha Markle has been appearing on international TV since Meghan and Harry's romance became public, with the majority of the interviews painting the Duchess of Sussex in a negative light.
Meghan briefly spoke about Samantha - who has the same father as her, Thomas Markle – in her 2022 Netflix documentary with husband Harry.
She told the cameras: “My half-sister, who I hadn't seen for over a decade – and that was only for a day and a half – suddenly, it felt like she was everywhere.
“I don't know your middle name. I don't know your birthday. You're telling these people that you raised me, and you've coined me 'Princess Pushy'."
Meghan added: “I don’t remember seeing her when I was a kid at my dad’s house – if and when they would come around, and then the last time that I saw her, that I remember, is when I was in my early twenties.
"I hadn’t had a fallout with her. We didn’t have a closeness to be able to have that."
A statement from Samantha Markle which was included in the documentary read: "Samantha Markle maintains that she and Meghan had a close relationship until 2018 and that the media fabricated quotes that have been attributed to her."
Read more:
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