Meghan Markle has come out on the successful side of another lawsuit, as the defamation case launched by her half-sister Samantha Markle has been dismissed at her request.
Samantha originally filed the lawsuit in March 2022, claiming that remarks made in the unauthorized biography Finding Freedom as well as Meghan’s comments in her CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey were defamatory. At the time, she was seeking $75,000 in damages for alleged harm done to her reputation.
However, a judge recently found reason to dismiss the case, arguing that there were no grounds to sue for defamation. Specifically, U.S. District Attorney Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell explained that the Duchess of Sussex “cannot be held liable for statements in a book that she did not publish.”
Though Finding Freedom is a biography about the Suits actress’ life, Meghan had no involvement nor did she authorize the book. Hence, the judge says she cannot be held responsible for any defamatory comments made within the book’s pages.
Likewise, the judge found that Meghan’s comments in the Oprah interview weren’t defamatory. Samantha specifically took issue with Meghan’s phrase that she “grew up as an only child,” but the judge determined this is protected as an opinion.
"As a reasonable listener would understand it, Defendant merely expresses an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-siblings. Thus, the Court finds that Defendant's statement is not objectively verifiable or subject to empirical proof," the judge explained.
Samantha and Meghan share the same father. Though Samantha has claimed they were close in childhood, she said things changed when the actress began dating Prince Harry.
Neither Samantha nor her father Thomas Markle were invited to Harry and Meghan’s 2019 nuptials. In the 2022 docuseries Harry & Meghan, the duchess said she wanted to invite Samantha’s daughter, Ashleigh, to the wedding, but she wasn’t allowed by the royal family.
"How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister's daughter is?" Meghan explained.
This isn’t the only lawsuit Meghan has come out on the winning side of. Last year, she won a defamation case against British tabloid The Mail, for publishing a private letter she wrote to her father ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry.
The tabloid was only ordered to pay Meghan £1for invasion of privacy, but the case was considered a landmark precedent for future media and defamation cases.
Sources: PEOPLE, The Washington Post,
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