Meghan Markle wins defamation lawsuit against estranged half-sister Samantha Markle
ORLANDO, FLORIDA: Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has won the defamation lawsuit brought against her by her half-sister Samantha Markle, who claimed that Meghan spread "malicious lies” about both her upbringing and their relationship in March 2021 explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey. On Thursday, March 30, the court found that Meghan's statements during the interview did not defame Samantha. US District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell dismissed the case by saying that Meghan's statements were opinion and "not capable of being proved false."
The ruling by the district judge read, "A reasonable listener would not think that Defendant was suggesting that she has no half-siblings, that Plaintiff does not actually exist, or that Plaintiff is not related to her,” regarding Meghan’s claim to Oprah that she was an “only child," reports Daily Beast. The ruling further read, “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…. Because the statement is not ‘capable of being proved false, it is protected from a defamation action.'"
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Samantha Markle claims she has 'ACTUAL PROOF' that Meghan defamed her as judge to decide dismissal
What did Meghan Markle tell Oprah Winfrey?
On an interview Meghan was asked by Oprah Winfrey, “Samantha Markle, your half-sister on your father’s side, has written a, a supposedly tell all book about you. What is … your relationship with her?” Meghan replied, “I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me. And … this is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with. Right? I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know. But 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 ….” Samantha claimed in her lawsuit that Meghan told Oprah that the half-sisters met “a handful of times," to which court responded that it could not verify that allegation and said, “This statement is nowhere to be found in the interview transcript.”
Samantha Markle claimed Oprah interview 'humiliated' her
Samantha claimed that the statements made in the interview reached "roughly 50 million people in 17 countries" and the allegations subjected her to “humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale,” reports Mirror. The defamation lawsuit read, "Plaintiff - who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair - brings this action for defamation based on demonstrably false and malicious statements made by her half-sister to a worldwide audience, including roughly 50 million people in 17 countries who watched the Oprah Winfrey interview with the Defendant, Meghan Markle, and her husband, Prince Harry of England." It also stated, "Meghan - who was featured with Prince Harry on the cover of Time Magazine's annual feature on 'The World's Most Influential People' published and disseminated false and malicious lies designed to destroy Plaintiff's reputation and which have subjected Plaintiff to humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale."
Meghan have 'false information' to biographers
Samantha also alleged that Meghan “contributed false information” to the authors of the book, 'Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family' mentioning Chapter 12, titled, 'A Problem Like Samantha.' However, the court agreed with Meghan saying, “Defendant argues that the claims based on Finding Freedom must fail because she did not publish the book. The Court agrees.” And added, “The Court finds that Plaintiff’s claims related to Finding Freedom are due to be dismissed because (i) a defendant must publish a defamatory statement for it to be actionable and (ii) it is undisputed that Defendant did not publish Finding Freedom.”
