Meghan Markle emerges victorious in legal battle with sister Samantha Markle

Meghan Markle defeated her half-sister, Samantha Markle in a lawsuit.

A judge discarded Samantha’s defamation lawsuit against Meghan, 42, on Tuesday, March 12. The decision was made with prejudice, meaning Samantha, 59, cannot file her claim again.

Samantha “failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation or defamation-by-implication by this point, her third try at amending her complaint,” Florida District Court Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell decided, as per court documents by Us Weekly.

The judge specially pointed out that neither the 2022 docuseries Harry & Meghan nor the March 2021 tell-all CBS interview with Meghan and Prince Harry featured any occurrences of defamation. 

The couple's remarks against Samantha and Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, were deemed by the court to be "quintessential examples of opinion."

“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling dismissing this case,” Meghan’s attorney Michael J. Kump stated to the outlet.

In March 2022, Samantha filed a lawsuit against Meghan, alleging that the Duchess of Sussex had misrepresented their relationship and had lied about living in "virtual poverty."

Samantha demanded compensation for damages, “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 emails and messages she receives regularly, and harm to her reputation and credibility,” in excess of $75,000.

In response, Meghan filed a hit-back to dismiss the suit, deeming her half-sister’s claims “meritless” in court.

“We do not empanel juries to rule on whether two people are ‘close,’ or whether one genuinely feels that they ‘grew up as an only child,’” the June 2022 filing continued.

“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.”