Meghan fiery feud with half-sister Samantha - from wedding snub to legal battle
The feud between Meghan Markle and her half-sister Samantha has taken another twist amid their bitter legal battle.
Samantha Markle is suing the duchess for "defamation and injurious falsehood" following her and Prince Harry's high-profile tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
And a judge presiding over the case has now ruled that both Harry and Meghan will be questioned as part of the proceedings after a motion to block the testimonies was denied.
It comes as both Meghan and Samantha have been embroiled in a fiery rift that has often played out in public.
Here, we look back at how their war of words began and how they ended up in a court wrangle...
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Early years
Meghan together with half-sister Samantha (Image supplied by Samantha Markle)
Meghan with husband Prince Harry (Getty Images)Samantha is the older daughter of Meghan's dad Thomas from his first marriage, meaning that she and Meghan are half-sisters.
However, the pair have given conflicting views on how close they were when Meghan was growing up.
In her Netflix series with Harry, Meghan claimed she didn't know Samantha's middle name or birthday and denied reports that she had helped raise her.
She also said she couldn't remember seeing Samantha as a child and said the last time she saw her in person was in her early 20s.
Meghan said: "I hadn't had a fallout with her. We didn't have a closeness to be able to have that. And I wanted a sister!"
However, a statement shown in the docuseries from Samantha maintained that she had a close relationship with Meghan until 2018.
Royal wedding
Harry and Meghan on their wedding day (Getty Images)In the run-up to the royal wedding, Meghan's dad pulled out of attending the nuptials with just several days' notice after suffering a heart scare following a row over staged paparazzi images.
At the wedding itself, the only family member present was Meghan's mum Doria as Samantha was not invited, and neither was her half-brother Thomas Junior.
At the time, Samantha hit out at the decision and tweeted: "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."
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Meanwhile, after the wedding, Samantha addressed a comment by Harry that she claimed caused uproar amongst her family.
Samantha did not attend the wedding (FOX via Getty Images)Harry had opened up about his first Christmas with then wife-to-be Meghan, which they spent with the Royal Family.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Harry said: "She's done an amazing job, you know it's the family I suppose she’s never had."
But speaking on Channel 5 documentary Meghan and the Markles: A Family at War, Samantha revealed how the family were hurt by the comments, believing Meghan was "embarrassed" by them.
She said: "Something was not right. Though we weren't the classic family together on schedule for every holiday, we were family."
Legal battle
Harry and Meghan during their interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 (Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese v)After Harry and Meghan sensationally quit as working royals, Samantha 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.
In 2021, Meghan and Harry then gave their bombshell Oprah interview, where they spoke about both their families and made a series of allegations about the royal family.
In a filing submitted in March last year, Samantha Markle claimed that "demonstrably false and malicious statements" were made by Meghan to a "worldwide audience" during the chat.
She alleged she was defamed by Meghan in the interview when the duchess "falsely and maliciously" said that she was "an only child".
"Plaintiff – who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair – brings this action for defamation based on demonstrably false and malicious statements made by her half-sister to a worldwide audience, including roughly 50 million people in 17 countries who watched the Oprah Winfrey interview with the defendant, Meghan Markle, and her husband, Prince Harry of England," the filing stated.
Samantha is suing for "defamation and injurious falsehood" (Channel 5)"Meghan – who was featured with Prince Harry on the cover of Time Magazine’s annual feature on ‘The World’s Most Influential People’ – published and disseminated false and malicious lies designed to destroy plaintiff's reputation and which have subjected plaintiff to humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale."
The filing also added that Meghan had used "the powerful resources of the royal family’s public relations operation" to disseminate and spread "lies worldwide" about Samantha Markle and their father, Thomas.
"Defendant orchestrated the campaign to defame and destroy her sister's and her father's reputation and credibility in order to preserve and promote the false 'rags-to-royalty' narrative," the filing stated.
"(It was) a premeditated campaign to destroy their reputation and credibility so they could not interfere with or contradict the false narrative and fairy tale life story concocted by the Defendant."
Estranged daughter
Samantha's estranged daughter Ashleigh Hale (Netflix)As the case heads towards a possible jury trial in Tampa, Florida, next January, Samantha also wants their dad Thomas Markle and former royal aide Jason Knauf to give deposition statements - as well as her daughter Ashleigh Hale.
Ashleigh told Harry and Meghan's Netflix docuseries that she and her brother were raised by their grandparents after they got custody when she was two years old.
She tells the documentary: "Ultimately, they did adopt us so I was raised by my paternal grandparents., for me, they were my parents. My biological mother, I've not seen her since I was six years old.
"Later in life, around 2007, we reconnected."
Meghan added: "I just remember my dad saying...'Samantha found her daughter and I was like...'Oh if you have her email address, I want to email her."
Ashleigh says the pair exchanged lengthy emails back and forth, before moving on to texts and calls as they chatted several times a week.
Ashleigh shared her hurt that she couldn't attend the royal wedding - as Meghan recalled the upsetting moment she had to tell her after discussing with the royal comms team how Samantha wasn't invited.
Discussing the matter, Meghan said: "How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding but the half-sister daughter's is. And so with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to the wedding
"I was in the car with H. I had her on speaker phone and we talked her through it what guidance we were being giving and why. And that's painful."
Addressing it, Ashleigh said she was "hurt" but "understood where it was coming from."
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