Samantha Markle’s defamation case against her sister Meghan has been dismissed because the Duchess of Sussex’s statements were ‘substantially true’.
Florida Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell said the case should be dismissed because Samantha ‘failed to identify any statements that could support a defamation claim’.
In a major victory for the Duchess, Judge Honeywell said Meghan’s comments in her Netflix series with Prince Harry or their interview with Oprah Winfrey were true.
The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Samantha will not be able to refile the case.
The judge’s decision spares Meghan, 42, from an embarrassing trial, which was due to take place in court in Tampa in November.
A judge dismissed Samantha Markle’s defamation suit against her sister Meghan. Samantha sought damages in excess of $75,000
The judge said Meghan Markle’s comments in her Netflix series with Prince Harry and in their interview with Oprah Winfrey were true
Samantha, 59, has sought at least $75,000 for slander and defamation implied because Meghan has suggested to Oprah that she grew up as an only child.
Meghan also said that Samantha only changed her name back to Markle after she started dating Harry.
According to Samantha, Meghan made similar allegations in the Netflix series and the allegations exposed her to ‘humiliation, shame and hatred worldwide’.
In his 58-page ruling, Judge Honeywell said Meghan’s statements could not be defamatory because they are “substantially true based on judicially noticed evidence” or “cannot be considered defamatory”.
Samantha had failed to “plausibly allege that they are defamatory in the first place”, the judge said.
The judge noted that Meghan’s comments about her childhood were her “just thinking” that she did not have a close relationship with Samantha, her half-sister, with whom she shares a father.
Judge Honeywell said Samatha’s claim that Meghan “suggested that (she) was a liar and a fame seeker” was an “incorrect mischaracterization” of what the duchess said.
Regarding Meghan’s statement that Samatha changed her name from Rasmussen, her married name, back to Markle after the Duchess began dating Harry, the judge said “the gist was true”.
She wrote: ‘That the plaintiff used a surname and then the name Markle shortly after reports of the defendant’s relationship with Prince Harry were published is substantially true, based on the documents in the record of which the court has taken judicial notice’.
Pictured: Meghan Markle at Samantha’s graduation in 2008. Samantha, 59, is seeking at least $75,000 for defamation and defamation by implication because Meghan suggested to Oprah that she grew up as an only child
Among the statements in Samantha’s claim was one by Harry in the Netflix series, in which he said: ‘Perhaps the most worrying part of this is the number of British journalists who interact with and reinforce the hate and the lies’.
But Judge Honeywell said: ‘That this statement was included in the complaint is confusing and suggests haste, a misunderstanding of the law or a lack of care on the part of the plaintiff’s counsel.
“It is unclear how this statement can be defamatory of plaintiff as it does not refer to her”.
In her conclusion, Judge Honeywell wrote: ‘Plaintiff’s claims will be dismissed with prejudice as she has failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation or defamation by implication, at this point, her third attempt to amend her complaint, in either the book Finding Freedom, the Netflix series Harry & Meghan or Defendant and her husband’s hour-long televised CBS Interview’.
The suit was originally filed in March 2022, and in legal filings, Samantha detailed how she was ‘very close’ to Meghan when they were growing up in Los Angeles.
Samantha helped Meghan with her homework, took her shopping and had a ‘wonderful relationship’ with her, it was claimed.
But when Meghan began to rise to fame in TV series Suits, she ‘no longer had time’ for Samantha and by 2016 they had stopped visiting each other, it was claimed.
The lawsuit claimed that when Meghan met Harry, she became ‘hostile’ towards Samantha as well as the rest of her family.
The ‘defining moment’ of Meghan’s ‘unfounded hostility’ towards Meghan happened in 2017, when the Duchess reportedly ‘hung up the phone immediately’ after hearing Samantha’s voice.
Samantha called back but “to this day, Meghan has never returned Samantha’s phone calls”, she claimed.
Since then, Meghan has ‘belligerently attempted to defame Samantha and other family members,’ the lawsuit states.
Meghan’s method is to ‘terminate friendships rather than save them and she becomes hostile,’ the lawsuit alleges.
Before her wedding in 2018, Meghan and Samantha’s father Thomas Sr suffered two heart attacks, but instead of showing him ‘grace and compassion, she actually ended their relationship’.
Thomas Sr had been caught posing for pictures with a paparazzi agency and Meghan has publicly claimed she did not believe he was telling her the truth.
It is then alleged that Meghan ‘started her smear campaign and ongoing deluge of twisted facts and stories, complete with false quotes about and ‘by’ Samantha’.
The lawsuit even alleges that Meghan has ‘encouraged hatred of Samantha through a bot network which caused great harm to Samantha’.
Samantha and Meghan have had a difficult relationship for years, which exploded into the public eye after Meghan’s engagement to Harry was announced in 2017.
Samantha was quoted by reporters as saying ‘the Queen would be horrified’ and called her a ‘ducha**’ on Twitter.
In her memoir, titled ‘The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister’, Samantha claimed Meghan ordered their father to disown his children from his first marriage if he wanted an invitation to her wedding.
According to the book, Meghan told Thomas Sr to divorce her and her brother Thomas by saying, ‘You don’t need them!’
Thomas Sr refused, reportedly saying: ‘I love you all equally’, to which Meghan replied: ‘Why can’t you just comply?’