Meghan Markle Defamation Lawsuit Tossed After Half-Sister ‘Failed to Identify Any Statements’ to Support Claim

A defamation lawsuit against Meghan Markle was dismissed by a federal judge on Tuesday after plaintiff Samantha Markle, her half-sister, “failed to identify any statements” to support her claim of “disparaging, hurtful and false” comments.

Samantha Markle filed the lawsuit in Tampa four years ago, citing comments made in the Duchess of Sussex’s sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey, in her Netflix docuseries with Prince Harry, “Harry & Meghan” and in her memoir “Finding Freedom.”

But the court found that Samantha was unable to plausibly state a claim for defamation or defamation by implication as to any of the presented statements, according to court documents obtained by TheWrap.

“The Court grants the motion to dismiss, in full,” U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell wrote in her 58-page ruling on Tuesday. “Plaintiffs claims will be dismissed with prejudice, as she has 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, in either the book ‘Finding Freedom,’ the Netflix series ‘Harry & Meghan’ or Defendant and her husband’s hour-long televised CBS interview. As such, the Third Amended Complaint will be dismissed, with prejudice.”

“As to the defamation claims, each and every statement is non-actionable, either because it is protected opinion, substantially true based on judicially noticed evidence, not capable of being considered defamatory or because Plaintiff is precluded from meeting the actual malice standard (because the statement in question was presented together with Plaintiff’s version of events). Therefore, the defamation claims in Court One (based on the CBS Interview and the Netflix Series) will be dismissed with prejudice,” the motion continued.

Under Florida’s law for defamation, it must come in one of two forms: libel, which would be expressed in print; or slander, which would be spoken or oral defamation.

“We are pleased with the Court’s ruling dismissing the case,” Markle’s attorney, Michael J. Kump of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP, said in a statement provided to TheWrap.