Meghan Markle has hit out at a defamation lawsuit filed against her half-sister Samantha Markle after a judge dismissed the case on Friday.
The lawsuit, filed in Tampa, Florida in March 2022, alleged that the Duchess of Sussex made “manifestly false and malicious statements” about her sister in 2021. CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey. It claims Meghan leaked defamatory statements about Samantha to the authors of the New York Times best-selling book “Finding Freedom,” which includes a chapter titled “A Problem Like Samantha.”
US District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, however, ruled in favor of the former ‘Suits’ actress. Regarding Oprah’s interview, the judge wrote that the duchess’ statement could not be proven false.
“As a reasonable audience would understand, (Meghan Markle) simply expressed an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-sibling,” Honeywell wrote in the order. “Thus, the court finds that the defendant’s statements are not objectively verifiable or subject to empirical evidence. The plaintiff cannot reasonably deny the defendant’s views about his own childhood.”
AP Photo/Ted Chaffrey
The judge also dismissed claims over the best-seller, finding the Duchess could not be held responsible for a book she did not publish.
Samantha, who has the same biological father as Megan, claimed in her lawsuit that the former actress lied about being an “only child” and downplayed her relationship with her half-sister.
“The defamation implies that (Samantha) had no relationship with her sister Meghan,” the lawsuit reads.
However, Meghan’s attorney defended his client’s comments as a subjective account of her upbringing.
Samantha’s attorneys have two weeks from the date of the court’s decision to file an amended complaint, court documents show.
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