Left: Meghan Markle (via AP). Right: Samantha Markle (via Sunrise Channel 7 Australia / YouTube screengrab).
The half-sister of actress-turned-royal Meghan Markle has renewed her defamation lawsuit against her celebrity sibling over comments she made during a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Samantha Markle sued Meghan Markle in 2022, accusing her of spreading "false and malicious" information in an unauthorized biography, "Finding Freedom," and in a widely watched television interview. She alleged that comments reportedly made by her younger half-sister caused financial harm and "subjected her to incomprehensible amounts of public scrutiny causing her mental health and well-being to deteriorate."
In late March, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell partially granted Meghan Markle's motion to drop the case, dismissing the "Finding Freedom" count with prejudice — meaning that Samantha Markle could not refile those claims. The judge determined that Meghan Markle was not responsible for publishing the book, a key element of a defamation claim.
Honeywell did, however, tell Samantha Markle that she could have another chance to file a lawsuit based on comments made during the Winfrey interview if she filed an amended complaint within 14 days.
On Thursday, Samantha Markle did just that.
"Utilizing her power as the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan made, published, and disseminated false statements about her own half-sister Samantha, with the intent to spread the statements across the globe," the third amended complaint says. "As a consequence, of the false and defamatory allegations and statements, Samantha was subjected to an incomprehensible amount of public scrutiny. On a regular basis, Samantha receives hate messages and suffers emotionally from the worldwide hatred, contempt, and ridicule that she is forced to endure."
The complaint alleges that Meghan Markle made "disparaging, hurtful and false statements insinuating that Samantha is a stranger, a liar, and a person who was only a deceptive fame-seeking imposter with avaricious intentions toward Meghan." These statements, the complaint says, go beyond protected expressions of opinion.
The amended complaint includes new allegations against Meghan Markle regarding comments made during the Netflix documentary series "Harry & Meghan," accusing her of mobilizing technology against her half-sister.
"Meghan knows and has known, at all relevant times that her older sister, Samantha suffers from Muscular Sclerosis, a debilitating disease exacerbated by stress," the complaint says. "Nevertheless, she has not only made public statements vilifying and embarrassing Samantha, but she has encouraged hatred of Samantha through a bot network which has caused great harm to Samantha."
The complaint says that Meghan Markle, along with a representative from an anti-online harassment and misinformation firm, accused Samantha Markle of creating multiple Twitter accounts targeting her half-sister with racism and death threats.
"In truth, Samantha originally had only the one (1) original Twitter account and she was not part of the spreading of alleged misinformation," the complaint says, adding that Samantha Markle was actually the victim of hacking and imposter accounts, and she was "forced to make her own other accounts when trolls of Meghan literally took over her one (1) original account."
Samantha Markle says that Meghan Markle insinuated during the Netflix series that her half-sister's Twitter account was suspended due to harassment, but that wasn't the case: it was actually due to her opinions on the treatment of COVID-19.
"The suspension of her account, which is impliedly due to statements about Meghan, in reality, was a short 'freeze' because of Samantha's endorsement of Ivermectin," the complaint says. "She was not suspended because of the alleged misinformation that was spread about Meghan and attributed to Samantha's name and account."
The revised complaint alleges defamation and defamation by implication.
Meghan Markle — known as the Duchess of Sussex since marrying England's Prince Harry in 2018 — shares father Thomas Markle, Jr., with Samantha Markle. Meghan Markle's relationship with her father, like that with her half-sister, is also fraught, with Thomas Markle allegedly staging paparazzi photos ahead of the 2018 royal wedding, which he did not attend.
Read the amended complaint here.
