A Florida judge ruled Tuesday that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be dismissed from their half-sister Samantha Markle’s defamation lawsuit.
Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell rejected Meghan’s motion to avoid testimony, saying the Duchess of Sussex “has not shown that exceptional circumstances justify the requested stay, or if the court does not impose a stay.” Prejudice or undue burden would result,” the report.
“[Meghan] The judge added that the disposition does not meet the high standard required to sustain discovery pending resolution of the motion.
Samantha, 58, demanded that Meghan, 41, and Harry, 38, be deposed in separate interviews, Fox News said in court documents obtained Monday, claiming that “to date, the Duchess has not made a single statement.” Has not agreed to give.”
Samantha also requested statements from her father Thomas Markle, her daughter Ashley Hale, former royal aide Jason Knopf and online security expert Christopher Bozzi.
Samantha sued Meghan for “manifestly false and malicious statements” to a “worldwide audience” during a March 2021 bombshell interview of the “Suits” alum and her husband with Oprah Winfrey. A case has been filed.
Samantha has accused Meghan of running a campaign to “smear and destroy” her and Thomas’ reputation and reputation. The lawsuit alleges that Meghan has done so “to preserve and promote a false ‘rags to royalty’ narrative” that she has “conjured up about her life in front of the royal family and the global media.” “
Samantha went on to claim that Meghan had “set out to destroy the lie. [Samantha’s] fame” which made him the subject of “humiliation, disgrace and hatred around the world”.
Samantha also denies that she and Meghan didn’t spend much time together growing up, with Meghan claiming that Samantha is a “high school dropout”.
Samantha also shot down Meghan’s claim that she changed her last name to Markle in 2016 following reports of Meghan’s relationship with Harry.
The court filing also alleges that Meghan “published and disseminated false and malicious statements” about Samantha in the 2020 book “Finding Freedom” by royal biographers.
Samantha has requested a trial by jury. She is seeking $75,000 in damages.
Meghan has said she was never intimate with Samantha, until she started dating Harry.
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Meghan has said she was never intimate with Samantha, until she started dating Harry.
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Meghan filed to dismiss Samantha’s case in June 2022, saying the allegations were “baseless”.
“We do not empanel juries to decide whether two people are ‘close,’ or whether someone genuinely feels they are ‘alone,'” his attorney argued in court documents at the time. have grown up as children’.” “Courts are not equipped to decide the legitimacy of a person’s feelings about childhood and relationships. Nor should they be.”
Meghan’s lawyer also told TMZ that the lawsuit was “baseless and ridiculous” and was “a continuation of troubling behaviour”.
“We will give him the minimal attention he deserves,” he added.
Meghan has insisted that she never had a relationship with Samantha and even said in a 2022 Netflix documentary, “Harry and Meghan,” that her half-sister made up how close they are. .
“I don’t know your middle name. I don’t know your birthday,” she said of Samantha. “You’re telling these people that you raised me, and you made me Princess Pushy?
“I didn’t have anything to do with her. We weren’t close enough to have that. And I wanted a sister!
Meghan claimed she was in her early 20s when she last saw Samantha.
Meanwhile, her estranged father said in March 2022 that he was willing to testify in Samantha’s case.
“I have been trying for almost four years to see my daughter and her ginger husband face to face in a courtroom. … I would be more than happy to come to court and speak to and defend my oldest daughter. ,” Thomas, 78, said at the time.
Thomas also said he believes Meghan has no shot at winning against Samantha and urged the Duchess to solve the case.
“There are so many blatant, blatant lies that are immediately challenged that I can’t imagine Meghan walking into court with that,” he said. “She can’t defend what she said.”
Thomas has been with Meghan for years and infamously did not attend her wedding to Harry in May 2018.
The Sussexes are also at loggerheads with Harry’s brother, Prince William, and their father, King Charles III, after the red-haired royal dragged their family into his recently released memoir, “Spear.”
After stepping down from their royal duties in January 2020, Harry and Meghan currently live in their native California with their two children – son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilybet, 1.
Representatives for Meghan and Harry did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
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