Meghan Markle's Drama With Her Sister Just Escalated In A Big Way
Meghan Markle and her estranged half-sister, Samantha Markle, have long been feuding in the public eye. Meghan and Samantha share the same father, Thomas Markle, but Meghan says that she considers herself an only child because she claims that she and Samantha never grew up together.
Ever since Meghan and Prince Harry first got together back in 2016, Meghan's relationships with members of her family have been heavily reported on and scrutinized. In 2018, Meghan seemingly cut ties with both her father and her half-sister after Samantha helped Thomas collude with the paparazzi for a series of fake candid photos of him preparing for Meghan's royal wedding day. Then Samantha released her book "The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister" in 2021, which tells her side of the story.
Today, Samantha is suing Meghan for defamation over her tell-all interview with Oprah back in 2021, where Meghan spoke about her non-existent relationship with her half-sister. Samantha alleges that Meghan lied about several things during the interview which tarnished her reputation, but now Samantha is roping another person into the lawsuit.
Samantha Markle names Prince Harry an 'interested person' in her lawsuit
Samantha Markle first filed her lawsuit in March 2022 against Meghan Markle, claiming defamation due to Meghan's alleged falsehoods. According to US Weekly, Samantha filed new court documents that now add Prince Harry to the lawsuit as an "interested person." This means that since Harry is Meghan's husband, he has a vested interest in the outcome of the lawsuit. Also, Harry was present during the Oprah tell-all interview.
Samantha is seeking upwards of $75,000 for "actual damages in the form of lost employment, lost income from sales of her autobiography, emotional and mental distress, including anxiety and fear due to the threatening and violent emails and messages she receives regularly, and harm to her reputation and credibility," per US Weekly. Samantha specifically says that Meghan lied when she told Oprah that she had only seen her half-sister a few times in the past couple of decades when they had actually been in contact many times over the years. She was also upset when Meghan alleged that Samantha changed her last name to Markle only after she had begun dating Harry. According to Fox News, however, Samantha's 2008 bachelor's degree has her last name as Markle, which Samantha says is proof that Meghan lied about when she changed her name and why.
If this lawsuit isn't settled out of court, we will for sure be grabbing our popcorn to watch the court proceedings. This is going to get messy.