Meghan Markle’s Sister is Suing Her for Comments Made in Oprah Interview

In a defamation lawsuit, Samantha Markle says Meghan's comments to Oprah have hurt her in the court of public opinion

Meghan Markleโ€™s half-sister Samantha is big mad at her former royal sis, and sheโ€™s taking her beef to court. According to Samantha Markleโ€™s legal team, they have a โ€œviable defamation caseโ€ against the Duchess of Sussex based on comments she made during the now-infamous tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey back in March 2021.

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Samantha Markle is taking issue with Meghan for telling Oprah that she grew up as an only child. โ€œI donโ€™t feel comfortable talking about people that I really donโ€™t know,โ€ Meghan told Oprah in the interview. โ€œI 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.โ€ Meghanโ€™s legal team insists that her comments to Oprah were โ€œsubjectiveโ€ and not meant to be โ€œobjective fact.โ€ For the record, Meghan also has a half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr.

But in an interview with Newsweek, Jamie Sasson of Samantha Markleโ€™s legal team said they are not backing down and feel they have a strong case. โ€œOur position on this is that we still feel confident this is a viable defamation claim, and Mrs. Markle [Meghan] is attempting to spin this around regarding the Oprah show stating that this is โ€˜subjectiveโ€™ thinking that she was an โ€˜only child,โ€™ but that is not subjective. Either youโ€™re an only child, or youโ€™re not,โ€ he said.

Samantha is also taking issue with Meghanโ€™s comments to Oprah that Samantha changed her name from Grant to Markle when Meghanโ€™s relationship with Harry went public. Samantha Markleโ€™s lawyers say Meghanโ€™s comments have hurt their client, and caused her to be perceived as a liar in the court of public opinion. โ€œWe clearly put into our complaint the damage that was caused to Samantha Markle by her being labeled a liar. She now faces online comments of โ€˜Meghanโ€™s lying sisterโ€™ and she never lied about anything,โ€ Jamie Sasson said.

But Meghanโ€™s lawyers insist Samanthaโ€™s claims are weak and clapped back in a July 25 filing to have the lawsuit dismissed. The team wrote, in part: โ€œThere is nothing defamatory about that statementโ€”saying that someone changed their name to be associated with another is not in and of itself defamatory in any way.โ€ Both sides are awaiting a judgeโ€™s ruling on the case.

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