Meghan Markle Scores Legal Win in Sister Samantha’s Defamation Case

Meghan Markle‘s estranged half-sister Samantha Markle has lost her defamation case against the Duchess of Sussex.

On March 30, a Florida judge granted Meghan’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit’s claims without prejudice, according to court documents obtained by E! News.

Samantha, 58, alleged in her 2022 filing that several defamatory comments about her were published in Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie‘s 2020 book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. The unauthorized biography about Meghan and husband Prince Harry contains a chapter titled “A Problem Like Samantha.”

Samantha also accused the duchess of making more defamatory statements about her in the couple’s 2021 CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey. She noted in her lawsuit how Meghan, 41, told the TV personality, “I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings.”

In her filing, Samantha—who shares father Thomas Markle with Meghan—stated that the alleged “defamatory statements” caused her irreparable prejudice, injury, and harm to her reputation, as well as anxiety and emotional distress. She also said she received hate mail, ongoing negative press, and was stalked by one of Meghan’s fans.