12 March 2024 , 16:05
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Following the news that Meghan Markle has successfully had her half-sister’s defamation case thrown out of court, we take a look into the fraught relationship between the Duchess and Samantha Markle.
Samantha brought a defamation case against Meghan back in March 2022, one year after the bombshell Harry and Meghan Oprah interview and months before the couple's Netflix docuseries dropped. In the case, Samantha alleged the Duchess had defamed her by giving information to an unauthorised biography called Finding Freedom and by discussing their relationship with Oprah on live TV.
She then accused Meghan and Harry's docuseries, which dropped onto the streaming platform Netflix a year ago, of spreading "malicious, hurtful, and damaging lies". The amended version of her suit was filed within hours of a two-week deadline a judge had set after previously granting Meghan's motion to dismiss the original claim.
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Samantha is Meghan's half-sister on her dad's side (Channel 7)Samantha alleged at the time that Meghan made comments seeking to "demonise" her and portray her as a "liar and fame seeker" in her show. She also claimed some of Meghan's fans launched "hate-filled smear campaigns" against her.
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But now it has emerged that the case is to be dismissed, with prejudice, meaning she cannot raise the claim again. Judge Honeywell wrote:" Defendant's (Meghan Markle) Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is GRANTED. Plaintiff's (Samantha Markle) Defamation Claims (Count One) are DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. Plaintiff's Defamation-By-Implication Claims (Count Two) are also DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment in favour of Defendant, Meghan Markle (also known as Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex), terminate any pending motions, and CLOSE this case."
But this isn't the only issue Meghan and Samantha have had before, because their feud has been long-running for many years. According to Samantha, she and Meghan were close when they were growing up, although this is not backed by the Duchess.
The pair have long been at loggerheads (Getty Images)The pair are 17 years apart and did not grow up at the same time. In 2018, Vanity Fair reported that Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle "moved in together a couple of years before Meghan was born, along with Samantha and Thomas junior, who had relocated to L.A. after living with their mum." And according to the article, "Samantha and Thomas Jr were 'unruly'."
And in Meghan's chat with Oprah in 2021, she declared: "I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings." Samantha is estranged from Meghan, and the pair have not spoken for more than a decade, since her “early twenties”, it has been claimed.
Due to their estrangement, Samantha was not invited to Meghan's wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. Samantha said at the time: "Out of respect and humanitarianism, the Markles should be invited if 2,000 complete strangers are. Our uncle, brother, me, best friend of 30 years, nephews. At issue is not a matter of closeness. Family is family."
Following Meghan marrying into the Royal Family, Samantha then gave several interviews speaking out about her half-sister and even released a book called The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister: A Memoir, Part One.
The synopsis of Samantha's book notes how she never expected to be "caught in between the cross hairs of media mayhem, as she defends herself, and her father, by dispelling social labels, and 'fake news', when her sister marries a Duke, and a Royal fairy plummets from ''the tea towels'." It then concluded: "Samantha holds firmly over all perceptions, 'plots' and 'ultimatums'. The truth is stranger than fiction."