Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Be Deposed in Half-Sister Samantha Markle’s Defamation Case: Details

usmagazine.com:

A royal rumble? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be deposed in a defamation case brought forward by Samantha Markle, the duchess’ estranged half-sister.According to CNN, a judge in Florida made the ruling on Tuesday, February 7.

Samantha, 58, is suing the Suits alum, 41, for “defamation and injurious falsehood” in response to the royal couple’s March 2021 CBS tell-all interview.

She alleges in her suit that Meghan made “demonstrably false and malicious statements” in the bombshell interview that aired “to a worldwide audience” of “roughly 50 million people in 17 countries.”Samantha also points to the 2020 book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family as another instance in which the Duchess of Sussex “published and disseminated false and malicious statements” about her family and upbringing.The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister author initially sued Meghan in March 2022, claiming that the California native was not honest about her past or their father, Thomas Markle, in her CBS sit-down.

Meghan attempted to have the “meritless” lawsuit dismissed three months later.In court documents obtained by Us Weekly in June 2022, Meghan alleged that Samantha “deleted numerous specific factual allegations and exhibits from her original complaint,” arguing that the omitted details would “completely undermine” Samantha’s case. “Indeed, in her desperation to save her case, Plaintiff quite literally fabricated one of the statements, as evidenced by the missing interview transcript,” the motion continued.The Archewell cofounder’s request was dismissed at the time.