Meghan Markle was being sued by her half-sister. A Florida judge just ruled on the case
That defamation lawsuit that Meghan Markle’s half-sister filed against her two years ago?
It’s dead in the water.
A federal judge in Florida on Tuesday dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the plaintiff, Samantha Markle, is barred from filing a lawsuit on the same issue ever again.
“The Court grants the motion to dismiss, in full,” U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell from Florida’s Middle District wrote in her 58-page ruling. “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 by this point, her third try…”
Markle, 59, shares the same father as Meghan, 42.
The Florida woman filed the suit in Tampa in March 2022 after the Duchess of Sussex had made a number of public appearances discussing her family, including a wide-ranging, sit-down CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
When discussing Samantha Markle’s “tell all” book, “The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister,” the “Suits” star told Oprah that it would be “very hard to tell all when you don’t know me.”
Samantha also cited comments Meghan made in her 2022 Netflix docuseries with Prince Harry, “Harry & Meghan.”
In her complaint, Samantha said thanks to all the publicity those projects received, people “turned against” her and saw her as “an opportunist trying to cash in on her sister’s success and fame, despite having no relationship with her.”
She was seeking damages in excess of $75,000 “in the form of lost employment, lost income from sales of her autobiography, emotional and mental distress, including anxiety and fear due to the threatening and violence e-mails and messages she receives regularly, and harm to her reputation and credibility,” said court documents.
In June 2022, Meghan sought to have the suit dismissed.
“We do not impanel juries to rule on whether two people are ‘close,’ or whether one genuinely feels that they ‘grew up as an only child,’” the mother of two’s filing said. “Courts are not equipped to adjudicate the legitimacy of a person’s feelings about their childhood and relationships. Nor should they be. … This dispute has no place in this Court or any other.”
Meghan’s attorney, Michael J. Kump, released a statement to People after Tuesday’s decision: “We are pleased with the court’s ruling dismissing the case.”