Samantha Markle says Meghan used Netflix show to spread “malicious” lies

Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, has accused the duchess of using her hit Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan to spread “malicious, hurtful, and damaging lies,” according to new court filings.

Samantha is suing Meghan over allegedly defamatory statements about her made during the royal’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

In March, a Florida judge granted Meghan a request to dismiss the lawsuit, which included claims that the duchess defamed her sister in the biography Finding Freedom.

Meghan did not publish the book, she was not the author, and therefore in her judgment, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell said the royal could not have defamed Samantha under Florida law. The judge did, however, give Samantha 14 days to amend her complaint relating to the comments made to Winfrey. This amendment was filed on Thursday.

In her updated complaint, Samantha has included a new set of allegations over statements made in Meghan and Prince Harry‘s eponymous six-part Netflix docuseries, which was released in December.

According to the complaint, seen by Newsweek, the duchess is accused of using the show—which was produced in partnership with the Sussexes’ Archewell Productions company—to: “publish, promulgate and distribute on a worldwide level malicious, hurtful, and damaging lies many of which were directed at Samantha.”

The Harry & Meghan series charted, over six-episodes, the course of the couple’s relationship as well as the series of events that led to their stepping away from the monarchy and moving to the U.S. in 2020.

Included in the narrative of the show was the couple’s version of events contributing to Meghan’s estrangement from her father, Thomas Markle, as well as her experiences growing up, which included references to her half-sister.

Among the statements made by Meghan in the series that were allegedly defamatory are her claim that her half-sister was “telling people you raised me,” which Samantha denies, and Meghan’s claim that: “I don’t remember seeing her when I was a kid at my dad’s house, if and when they would come around.”

The complaint also lists comments made by Prince Harry and Bot Sentinel founder, Christopher Bouzy, relating to Samantha as “damaging and dangerous.”

“The Series is disparaging and hurtful on its own,” the complaint states. “And the statements when taken individually or collectively, weave a narrative of lies that Meghan hides behind in an attempt to bolster her own false ‘rags-to-riches’ while actually discrediting her sister calling her a liar and ‘fame seeker,’ and far worse, going so far as to publish statements which imply or state that Samantha is a racist.”

In relation to the comments made during the Oprah Winfrey tell-all in 2021, the complaint persists with its previous claims that Meghan’s comment that she “grew up as an only child,” and “the last time I saw her [Samantha] must have been at least 18, 19 years ago, and before that, ten (10) years before that,” were defamatory in the context of the interview.

The complaint claims that Samantha has suffered reputationally as a result of Meghan’s public comments about her, seeing her unable to find employment in her capacity as a mental health counselor, and receive regular abuse from fans of the duchess.

Samantha is seeking a trial by jury for her complaints. The next steps in the lawsuit will see the amended filing reviewed by a judge to see if it will be taken any further.

Newsweek has approached legal representatives for Samantha Markle and Meghan Markle via email for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook page.

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