Defamation case against Meghan Markle by half-sister dismissed by judge

TAMPA, Fla. — A federal judge in Florida dismissed a defamation suit filed against Meghan Markle by her half-sister two years ago.

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Samantha Markle, 59, had sued the Duchess of Sussex Meghan over comments she made in a 2021 CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey and in a 2022 Netflix docuseries with Prince Harry, “Harry & Meghan,” the Miami Herald reported. She was seeking $75,000 in damages.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell, from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, dismissed the case with prejudice. That means that Samantha Markle, who shares the same father with her half-sister, Thomas Markle, is barred from filing a lawsuit on the same issue, according to the newspaper.

Honeywell wrote that the motion to dismiss was granted after Samantha Markle failed to produce statements supporting her defamation claims, People reported. The judge wrote that Samantha Markle’s allegations “suggest” that she “disagrees” with her half-sister’s “opinions rather than statements of fact.”

During her interview with Winfrey, Meghan Markle commented about her half-sister’s “tell-all” book, “The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister,” which was released in February 2021.

The duchess said during her interview that it would be “very hard to tell all when you don’t know me,” the Herald reported.

“When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone you have a relationship with, right?” Meghan Markle said, according to the lawsuit. “I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know.”

Samantha Markle had taken issue with that comment by the “Suits” actress,” the BBC reported. The duchess also told Winfrey “I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings.”

Honeywell ruled that the comments of the 42-year-old duchess were her expressed opinion, according to the news organization.

Samantha Markle had also complained about her half-sister’s comment to Winfrey that she had changed her surname back to “Markle” after Meghan began dating Prince Harry, the BBC reported.

Samantha had taken issue with Meghan’s comment, made in her interview with Winfrey, that Samantha had changed her surname back to Markle when her half-sister had started dating the Duke of Sussex.

“The court has taken notice of the fact that (Samantha) used the surname Rasmussen in September 2016 and Markle two months later, soon after (Meghan’s) royal relationship was first reported,” Honeywell wrote. “Therefore, the gist of the statement -- that (Samantha) switched to her family name a short time after it was reported (Meghan) was involved with Prince Harry -- is true.”

In June 2022, Meghan Markle attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed.

“We do not impanel juries to rule on whether two people are ‘close,’ or whether one genuinely feels that they ‘grew up as an only child,’” the duchess wrote. “Courts are not equipped to adjudicate the legitimacy of a person’s feelings about their childhood and relationships. Nor should they be. … This dispute has no place in this Court or any other.”

Meghan Markle’s attorney, Michael J. Kump, told People in a statement “We are pleased with the court’s ruling dismissing the case.”

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