Meghan Markle’s half-sister Samantha is big mad at her former royal sis, and she’s taking her beef to court. According to Samantha Markle’s legal team, they have a “viable defamation case” against the Duchess of Sussex based on comments she made during the now-infamous tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey back in March 2021.
Samantha Markle is taking issue with Meghan for telling Oprah that she grew up as an only child. “I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know,” Meghan told Oprah in the interview. “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.” Meghan’s legal team insists that her comments to Oprah were “subjective” and not meant to be “objective fact.” For the record, Meghan also has a half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr.
But in an interview with Newsweek, Jamie Sasson of Samantha Markle’s legal team said they are not backing down and feel they have a strong case. “Our 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 ‘subjective’ thinking that she was an ‘only child,’ but that is not subjective. Either you’re an only child, or you’re not,” he said.
Samantha is also taking issue with Meghan’s comments to Oprah that Samantha changed her name from Grant to Markle when Meghan’s relationship with Harry went public. Samantha Markle’s lawyers say Meghan’s comments have hurt their client, and caused her to be perceived as a liar in the court of public opinion. “We 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 ‘Meghan’s lying sister’ and she never lied about anything,” Jamie Sasson said.
But Meghan’s lawyers insist Samantha’s claims are weak and clapped back in a July 25 filing to have the lawsuit dismissed. The team wrote, in part: “There is nothing defamatory about that statement—saying that someone changed their name to be associated with another is not in and of itself defamatory in any way.” Both sides are awaiting a judge’s ruling on the case.