DUCHESS IN THE DOCK: Meghan Markle wants Samantha Markle's 'meritless' lawsuit dismissed
The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly demanded that her estranged half-sibling Samatha Markle cover her attorneys’ fees as she calls the defamation lawsuit filed by her “meritless” and wants it tossed.
Meghan Markle has filed a motion in court to dismiss Samantha Markle’s defamation lawsuit which stemmed from her and Prince Harry's March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, according to court documents obtained by Page Six. Samantha had sued her half-sister, claiming that Meghan lied about both her upbringing and their relationship during the interview.
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As per the filing by Meghan Markle's lawyers, Samantha’s complaint "has no place in this court or any other” because they feel she is asking the court to decide whether she and Meghan “had ever ‘been close,’ how many times the two ‘crossed paths’ as adults and whether Meghan’s feelings that she ‘grew up as an only child’ are ‘true’ or false.'"
The document states, "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. Courts are not equipped to adjudicate the legitimacy of a person’s feelings about their childhood and relationships. Nor should they be.”
Meghan Markle's legal team said that Samantha’s dispute “does not state a claim for defamation or injurious falsehood” and demanded her to pay for the legal costs Meghan has incurred while defending herself.
In March, Samantha, who also goes by Samantha Grant and Samantha Rasmussen, allegedly filed a $75K lawsuit against Meghan, claiming that she made “false and malicious statements" during her interview with Oprah.
Samantha, who lives in Tampa, Florida, accused the Duchess of Sussex of presenting a fraudulent timeline of when they last saw each other and claimed to be "an only child".
The filing read, "The defamatory implication is that [Samantha] had no relationship whatsoever with her sister Meghan, they were virtual strangers, and that [Samantha] has created a lucrative career selling false stories to tabloids and television programs when she knows nothing about [Meghan’s] childhood."
Samantha accused the former 'Suits' star, who lives in Santa Barbara, California, of bashing their father, Thomas Markle, 77, in an attempt to sell the world a false “rags-to-royalty” narrative of her life.
Meghan Markle had told Oprah Winfrey during the original CBS interview, "I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings," before noting that she hadn't seen Samantha in almost 20 years.
Samantha replied with a defamation suit and claimed that her half-sister lied about paying her own way through college, stating that their father funded her entire schooling. In response to this, Meghan gave specified documents stating evidence that Samantha uses in her initial claim of defamation and why they do not support her argument, even stating, "Plaintiff [Samantha Markle] quite literally fabricated one of the statements, as evidenced by the missing interview transcript."