A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a lawsuit against Meghan Markle, wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, saying allegations that the actress made “derogatory, harmful and false” claims about her half-sister were without merit.
Meghan’s paternal sister, Samantha, claimed that her sister’s statements in the Netflix docuseries and a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey implied that Samantha is a “fame-seeking, deceitful fraud with greedy intentions.”
The lawsuit specifically addressed Markle’s statements that she and Samantha were not close while growing up, and that Samantha changed her surname back to Markle when the royal couple first started dating.
In her ruling on Tuesday, US District Court Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell found that the statements in question were either opinions, substantially true, or did not reasonably discredit Samantha.
Meghan Markle and Harry, the youngest son of King Charles, are known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They have been living with their two children in California since the couple stepped down from their royal duties in 2020.
Their separation from the rest of the British royal family has been the focus of tabloids around the world for years, and prompted the British government to strip Harry of police protection while he was in Britain.
In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey mentioned in Samantha Markle’s complaint, the couple accused the royal family of racism, neglect and internal discord. When Winfrey asked her about a book her half-sister had written about her, Markle replied that it would be “very difficult to tell everything when you don’t know me.”
Their appearance with Winfrey was watched by 49 million people around the world, according to the American network CBS. This caused a decline in its popularity within Britain and sparked the biggest crisis of the current century for the monarchy that was founded a thousand years ago.
