Samantha Markle‘s legal battle against Meghan Markle is over for good!
On Tuesday, Florida District Court Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell dismissed Samantha’s defamation lawsuit against the Suits alum “with prejudice” — meaning she cannot sue for the same claims again! Wow!
According to court docs obtained by Page Six, the half-sister “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.” Samantha had been arguing that comments made by her sister in her Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, in Oprah Winfrey‘s interview, and Omid Scobie‘s book Finding Freedom had been defamatory. This included the Archetypes host’s claims she was “an only child” and that she wasn’t close to her estranged half-sister. Samantha also took issue with Meghan accusing her of changing her surname to draft off her fame (she had been Samantha Grant before Meghan gained international fame).
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In 2022 and 2023, the case was tossed out when the judge ruled that Meghan’s comments were opinions and “not capable of being proven false.” That said, Honeywell gave Samantha the chance to amend her complaint — but after all this time and several attempts, she couldn’t produce the necessary evidence!
While dismissing and closing the case permanently, the judge ruled there were no examples of defamation in any of the aforementioned projects. Instead, the official found the 59-year-old daughter of Thomas Markle supplied “mischaracterizations of the [CBS interview] transcript” and determined the couple’s statements about Samantha and their father were “quintessential examples of opinion that cannot be verified and therefore cannot serve as the basis of a defamation action.”
Samantha had been requesting $75,000 in damages and for the cost of court and attorney’s fees. No word yet if she’ll file an appeal or finally give up this fight. We bet Meg’s throwing a victory party, though! It’s a big win!
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