Meghan Markle, Samantha Markle’s Defamation Lawsuit Dismissed

A royal victory. Meghan Markle has gained the defamation lawsuit filed towards her by half-sister Samantha Markle.

Based on paperwork obtained by Us Weekly, the $75,000 case was dismissed in Florida on Thursday, March 30. U.S. District Choose Charlene Edwards Honeywell dominated in favor of the Fits alum, 41, noting that the statements she made throughout her 2021 CBS interview with Prince Harry had been clearly opinions and subsequently couldn’t presumably be thought-about defamatory.


Meghan Markle and Samantha Markle
Shutterstock; MEGA

The decide additionally dismissed Samantha’s qualms with the 2020 ebook Discovering Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Fashionable Royal Household, for which she alleged Meghan “contributed false data.” Honeywell dominated that the claims be tossed as a result of the Duchess of Sussex didn’t write the ebook herself. (Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand had been the authors of Discovering Freedom.)

Samantha, 58, sued her half-sibling in March 2022 and claimed that Meghan was not sincere about her upbringing throughout her CBS sit-down one 12 months prior. Within the wide-ranging interview, Meghan opened up about her childhood and falling out with dad Thomas Markle.

“I grew up as an solely little one, which everybody who grew up round me is aware of, and I needed I had siblings,” the “Archetypes” podcast host stated on the time, addressing the general public feedback Samantha and Thomas, 78, have made since she married Harry, 38, in Could 2018. She additionally alleged that “the final time I noticed [Samantha] will need to have been at the least 18, 19 years in the past.”

The California native tried to have the “meritless” lawsuit dismissed in June 2022. Meghan claimed in court docket docs obtained by Us that Samantha “deleted quite a few particular factual allegations and displays from her authentic criticism” that might “utterly undermine” her case.

On the time, Meghan’s movement was not granted. The Bench creator reportedly filed a request in September 2022 to cease depositions however was denied. Each she and Harry had been ordered in February to supply out-of-court testimony within the case, per CNN.

The Archewell cofounders — who share son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 21 months — stepped down from their senior royal duties in early 2020 and moved to the U.S. Within the wake of the couple’s exit from the palace, Samantha and Thomas have continued to share their unfiltered ideas about Meghan.

“She’s just about ghosted all of her household, on her mom’s aspect and my aspect,” the previous lighting director advised Good Morning Britain in October 2021, referring to ex-wife Doria Ragland. “So, she actually had nobody to succeed in out to. She would’ve had us if she’d stored us. All of us make errors.”

Throughout the six-part docuseries Harry & Meghan, which hit Netflix in December 2022, the prince claimed that he felt liable for his spouse’s estranged relationship along with her family members.

“After all, it’s extremely unhappy what occurred. She had a father earlier than this,” he stated in episode 3, reflecting on Thomas’ absence from the duo’s marriage ceremony. “Now she doesn’t have a father. I shouldered that. As a result of if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would nonetheless be her dad.”