Inside Meghan Markle’s family nightmare: sued by her sister Samantha, attacked on YouTube by her father Thomas, and slammed on live TV by brother Thomas Jr., how much worse can things get?

Mar 18 , 2022

Learn more about the family feud between Meghan and the Markles. Photos: @guayaquilcaliente, @theninashow_royal, @ukfabfour/Instagram, AP

Samantha Markle is suing the Duchess of Sussex for ‘false and malicious statements’ in the Oprah interview and the biography Finding Freedom

Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Jr. slammed her on reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother Australia while she and Prince Harry are being criticised for skipping Prince Phillip’s memorial

On March 7, an extraordinary interview with Oprah Winfrey and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex about their time in the royal family aired, setting off a catalyst of historic events. The couple detailed what they claimed were incidents of racism, a lack of support and zero understanding from senior royal family members.

They explained why they turned their back on their royal duties, left the UK and made the US their new home. But the claims they made in the interview continue to haunt them, with Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha, now opening a defamation suit against her movie star sibling. That announcement was followed by Meghan’s estranged father, Thomas, supporting Samantha’s claims, even going as far as to say he’d testify against Meghan.

Here’s how Meghan’s family nightmare just won’t end.

Samantha Markle’s lawsuit

Meghan Markle’s paternal half-sister. Samantha Markle. Photo: @kembricistan/Instagram

Samantha confirmed she had filed a libel lawsuit against her half-sister, accusing her of lying during her landmark interview with Winfrey a year ago. The Independent reports that Samantha claims Meghan’s statements about her were “false and malicious”. US Weekly reports the lawsuit disputes Meghan’s claims that she worked to pay her way through school, insisting that her father Thomas paid for her tuition at Northwestern University.

The lawsuit further adds that Samantha believes Meghan made the claims so her family “could not interfere with or contradict the false narrative and fairy tale life story [she] concocted”.

Samantha and Meghan Markle. Photo: @samanthamarkle/Twitter

Newsweek reports the second part of the lawsuit revolves around briefing notes the duchess sent to her then communications secretary Jason Knauf in 2018. The notes were emailed ahead of a meeting between the aide and the authors of biography Finding Freedom and described Samantha as having three children by three different men. The message also seemed to insinuate Samantha had lost custody of her children.

The court documents state this is incorrect. Vanity Fair reports that Meghan admitted to court papers she knew Knauf was meeting with the authors of the book. She had previously denied any role on the book, but later said she had forgotten about Knauf’s involvement and how she had approved some statements he made about her and her family.

Meghan’s lawyer, Michael Kump, responded to Samantha’s lawsuit as being “baseless and absurd”. But the potential for more private messages to be revealed through the discovery process poses a real threat to the integrity of Meghan and her role in disseminating information about her half-sister. The lawsuit is claiming US$75,000 in damages.

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