Meghan Markleโs half-sister Samantha is big mad at her former royal sis, and sheโs taking her beef to court. According to Samantha Markleโs legal team, they have a โviable 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. โI donโt feel comfortable talking about people that I really donโt know,โ Meghan told Oprah in the interview. โI 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 Meghanโs legal team insists that her comments to Oprah were โsubjectiveโ and not meant to be โobjective fact.โ For the record, Meghan also has a half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr.
But in an interview with Newsweek, Jamie Sasson of Samantha Markleโs legal team said they are not backing down and feel they have a strong case. โOur 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 โsubjectiveโ thinking that she was an โonly child,โ but that is not subjective. Either youโre an only child, or youโre not,โ he said.
Samantha is also taking issue with Meghanโs comments to Oprah that Samantha changed her name from Grant to Markle when Meghanโs relationship with Harry went public. Samantha Markleโs lawyers say Meghanโs comments have hurt their client, and caused her to be perceived as a liar in the court of public opinion. โWe 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 โMeghanโs lying sisterโ and she never lied about anything,โ Jamie Sasson said.
But Meghanโs lawyers insist Samanthaโs claims are weak and clapped back in a July 25 filing to have the lawsuit dismissed. The team wrote, in part: โThere is nothing defamatory about that statementโsaying 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 judgeโs ruling on the case.
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