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Meghan Markle’s half sister Samantha (pictured left) has launched a fresh legal fight to sue the Duchess for defamation, claiming she has portrayed her in a way that has left her unable to work. The 59-year-old is appealing against a court ruling rejecting her claim that Meghan made her out to be a ‘lying, racist, fame-seeker’.
Samantha is claiming her Duchess sister has destroyed her image ‘publicly and on a global scale,’ according to court documents ‘She has made it so Samantha cannot work, or even enjoy the most mundane of activities, like going to the grocery store without harassment,’ the document, obtained by The Sun, continues. But the case, which revolves around comments made during Prince Harry and Meghan’s infamous 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey and in TV series Harry & Meghan in December 2022, was previously called to be dismissed.
In March, Florida Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell said that Samantha (pictured centre) ‘failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation.’ The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it could not simply be refiled, but Samantha’s legal team were determined to overturn that decision.
The documents, which were filed at a court in Florida, claim Samantha was portrayed as an individual ‘who is out to harm Meghan and to capitalize on that harm caused’. Her lawyers are now arguing Judge Honeywell failed to take into account the implied defamation created by omitting facts. The March decision spared Meghan from a trial which was set to take place at the court in Tampa in November.
Samantha has been seeking at least $75,000 for defamation and defamation by implication for Meghan suggesting to Oprah that she grew up as an only child. Meghan also said that Samantha only changed her name back to Markle after she began dating Harry. According to Samantha, Meghan made similar claims in the Netflix series and the allegations subjected her to ‘humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale’. In her 58-page ruling, Judge Honeywell said that Meghan’s statements could not be defamatory because they are ‘substantially true based on judicially noticed evidence’ or ‘not capable of being considered defamatory.’
Samantha had failed to ‘plausibly allege that they are defamatory in the first place’, the judge said. The judge noted that Meghan’s comments about her childhood was her ‘merely opining’ that she did not have a close relationship with Samantha, her half sister with whom she shares a father. Judge Honeywell said that Samantha’s claim that Meghan ‘implied that (she) was a liar and a fame-seeker’, was an ‘improper mischaracterization’ of what the Duchess said.
Turning to Meghan’s statement that Samantha changed her name from Rasmussen, her married name, back to Markle after the Duchess began dating Harry, the judge said that ‘the gist was true’. She wrote: ‘That Plaintiff used one last name and then the name Markle soon after reports of Defendant’s relationship with Prince Harry were published is substantially true, based on the exhibits in the record, of which the Court has taken judicial notice.’ Among the statements in Samantha’s claim was one by Harry in the Netflix series in which he said: ‘Perhaps the most troubling part of this is the number of British journalists interacting with and amplifying the hate and the lies’.
But Judge Honeywell said: ‘That this statement was included in the complaint is perplexing and suggests haste, a misunderstanding of the law, or a lack of diligence on the part of plaintiff’s counsel. ‘It is unclear how this statement could be defamatory towards Plaintiff, as it does not reference her’. In her conclusion, Judge Honeywell wrote: ‘Plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed with prejudice, as she has failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation or defamation-by-implication by this point, her third try at amending her complaint, in either the book Finding Freedom, the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, or Defendant and her husband’s hour-long televised CBS Interview’.
Samantha had also planned to ask Kate Middleton for a witness statement before the Princess of Wales revealed she had cancer. But she had stressed that the Kate’s ‘cancer recovery is priority.’ ‘I think it’s important everyone know that this was out there by my attorney before anyone was aware of her health challenges,’ Samantha told former GB News host Dan Wootton. On March 18, Samantha’s lawyer, Peter Ticktin, told Wootton during an episode of his Outspoken online talk show that he felt as though the princess would be able to provide a useful witness statement in the trial. ‘I felt that Catherine might have some very important light to shed on what had occurred because obviously something is really really wrong between these two,’ he said.
Samantha has filed her new, and potentially final, appeal just two days after Meghan celebrated her 43rd birthday . Her lawyers are set to request an oral hearing but no date has yet been confirmed. They said: ‘Oral argument is desired as the issues may require some clarification.’ The fresh blow for the Duchess comes after she made an appearance on CBS News Sunday Morning as she opened up on her suicidal thoughts and feelings she was subjected to as a working royal.
The Suits star first detailed such feelings in March 2021, when she told Oprah Winfrey she ‘just didn’t want to be alive anymore’ because of abuse she was suffering online. This time, Markle told host Jane Pauley how she hope her candor will help youngsters around the world navigate similar feelings after surfing the web.
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