Meghan Markle Attempts To Dismiss Half-Sister's Defamation Lawsuit — But Judge Denies Request
The feud is on: Meghan Markle attempted to dismiss half-sister Samantha Markle's defamation lawsuit — but the judge denied the former actress' request.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the 40-year-old filed her first motion to dismiss on June 17.
The Duchess, who is married to Prince Harry, alleged that Samantha “deleted numerous specific factual allegations and exhibits from her original complaint."
“Most obviously, her original complaint attached a 2018 email from Meghan to the then-Communications Secretary of Kensington Palace, Jason Knauf, that Plaintiff alleged was the basis for the allegedly defamatory statements in Finding Freedom,” the documents read. “However, the email on its face disproved Plaintiff’s claim that Meghan was somehow responsible for the authors’ allegedly defamatory statements in Finding Freedom.”
“Indeed, in her desperation to save her case, Plaintiff quite literally fabricated one of the statements, as evidenced by the missing interview transcript," the motion continues.
Earlier this year, Samantha claimed that Meghan was not telling the whole truth when she sat down with Oprah Winfrey to discuss her relationship with their father, Thomas Markle.
While speaking with Winfrey, Meghan briefly touched upon where she stands with Samantha.
“I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings. I would have loved to have had siblings,” she said, adding that she hadn't seen Samantha in 20 years. “[She] changed her last name back to Markle in her early 50s … only when I started dating Harry. So, I think that says enough.”
At the time, Samantha claimed that was far from true. "The defamatory implication is that Plaintiff had no relationship whatsoever with her sister Meghan, they were virtual strangers and that Plaintiff has created a lucrative career selling false stories to tabloids and television programs when she knows nothing about Defendant's childhood," the docs read.
"Meghan falsely claimed that (a) she essentially raised herself from virtual poverty; (b) she was forced from the age of 13 to work in a series of low-paying jobs to ‘make ends meet,’” the suit continued.
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