Meghan Markle has lost her bid to avoid being deposed in a defamation suit filed by her estranged half-sister, Samantha Markle.
Samantha Markle is suing for “defamation and injurious falsehood” harking back to Harry and Meghan’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which the Duchess of Sussex said she had virtually been an only child, among other statements about her relationships with her half-siblings.
Samantha Markle filed suit in March 2022 seeking $75,000 or more in damages for the allegedly “demonstrably false and malicious statements” Meghan made “to a worldwide audience.”
The duchess filed a motion last September seeking to stop depositions, which are testimony gathered from witnesses out of court, under oath. She is also trying to have the suit dismissed from a U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida.
A Florida judge rejected the request Tuesday.
“Defendant Markle does not satisfy the high standard required to stay discovery pending the resolution of a dispositive motion,” Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell said, according to CNN.
“My half-sister, who I hadn’t seen for over a decade — and that was only for a day and a half — suddenly, it felt like she was everywhere,” Meghan elaborated in the Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan.”
“I don’t know your middle name. I don’t know your birthday. You’re telling these people that you raised me, and you’ve coined me ‘Princess Pushy.’ "
On the contrary, Samantha alleges, Meghan completely misrepresented their relationship in implying they were “virtual strangers” who had “no relationship whatsoever,” according to BBC News.
Calling herself an “only child” in the Emmy-nominated Oprah interview was a false and malicious statement, Samantha alleges, noting that she had actually done things like drive her little sister to school “on a regular basis at a certain period of your life.” She accused Meghan of manufacturing a “false rags-to-royalty narrative.”
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