Samantha Markle Files Fresh Appeal in Court Against Meghan Markle Over Defamation Row

Samantha Markle previously lost a defamation case against her sister Meghan Markle. The half-sister filed a lawsuit against the Duchess following remarks made by the ex-royal during her contentious interview with Oprah alongside her spouse, Prince Harry. However, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell dismissed the case.

As per Newsweek, the estranged half-sister is set to file a fresh appeal which might reverse Honeywell's decision. The court documents state: "Notice is hereby given that the Plaintiff, Samantha M. Markle, by and through her undersigned counsel, appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the Order Granting Defendants, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, Motion to Dismiss entered by the Honorable Charlene Edwards Honeywell on March 12, 2024."

While discussing the relationship with her half-sister during the infamous 2021 interview with Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex said: "I think it'd be very hard to tell all when you don't know me. And I mean, this is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with. Right? I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know. But I grew up as an only child," she continued, "which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings. I would have loved to have had siblings, so I'm so excited to be pregnant so that Archie has someone." 

As per The UK Mirror, Samantha claimed the statement was defamatory, and her legal team countered that it was "disparaging, hurtful, and false," implying that she was a "deceptive fame-seeking imposter with avaricious intentions" and that she was "a stranger, a liar."

The estranged Markle's complaint was dismissed from court after the Florida judge stated in a 58-page ruling that she had "failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation or defamation-by-implication".

Furthermore, Judge Honeywell stated that the half-sister's "third try at amending her complaint, in either the book Finding Freedom, the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, or Defendant and her husband's hour-long televised CBS Interview" is to be dismissed, with prejudice, which means she is not allowed to bring up the issue once more.

After the Florida court found in favor of the Duchess and stated that the ex-royal was voicing "an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-sibling," Markle was able to have her half-sister's initial case dismissed. Judge Honeywell had stated in her ruling: "What it means to be 'close'—to share a relationship with someone so intimate that you 'really know' that person—is a subject that might make good fodder for philosophical, psychological, or personal exploration. However, it is not capable of being definitively answered. [Samantha Markle] cannot objectively prove that she 'really knows' [Meghan] or that [Meghan] falsely felt that their relationship was not sufficiently intimate to justify the use of the word 'betrayal.'" 

"Because this statement is an opinion not readily capable of being proven, it is protected by law from a defamation action. As to the defamation claims," Honeywell added, "every statement is non-actionable, either because it is a protected opinion, substantially true based on judicially noticed evidence, not capable of being considered defamatory, or because [Samantha Markle] is precluded from meeting the actual malice standard."