Duchess Meghan (41) can look forward to a legal victory over her half-sister Samantha Markle (58). She sued the Duchess of Sussex for defamation in March 2022. Prince Harry's (38) wife was accused by her relative of spreading "malicious lies" during the famous TV interview with talk legend Oprah Winfrey (69) in 2021.
According to media reports, Samantha Markle is seeking $75,000 in the lawsuit because Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that she grew up as an only child. The comments provoked "humiliation and hatred" for her half-sister, she claimed.
A judge in Florida has now dismissed the lawsuit, according to "Daily Beast". The reason: Duchess Meghan's statements are "pure opinion" and "cannot be proven wrong". She only "expressed an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-siblings," wrote the judge responsible for the decision. The court therefore finds that the statement of the defendant is not objectively verifiable or provable. "The plaintiff cannot plausibly refute the defendant's opinion about her own childhood."
In addition to the Oprah interview, the lawsuit was also about the biography "Finding Freedom" about Meghan and Harry. The book, written by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claimed that Samantha Markle barely knew her half-sister and had "never been close".
Markle had repeatedly spoken negatively about Meghan in the tabloids. Speaking to Oprah Winfrey on TV, the Duchess said of her half-sister that betrayal can only come from someone you are in a relationship with. "But I grew up as an only child, everyone who grew up around me knows that, and I wish I had siblings. I would have loved to have had siblings." Samantha denies this, according to the lawsuit, claiming she had a "wonderful relationship" with Meghan growing up. She drove her to school regularly and helped her with her homework.
However, according to the judge, TV viewers could tell that the Duchess did not mean by her statements that she had no half-siblings or was not related to Samantha. These statements are merely descriptions of their subjective experience and do not amount to defamation. Regarding the book Finding Freedom, the judge stated that Meghan cannot be held responsible for the content as she did not publish it.
Like her brother Thomas Markle Jr. (56), Samantha Markle comes from Meghan's father Thomas Markle's (78) first marriage. Meghan's mother Doria Ragland (66) separated when the later Duchess of Sussex was still a small child. After scandals surrounding her royal wedding in 2018, Meghan should no longer have any contact with her father.
