Meghan Markle has responded to the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by her half-sister Samantha Markle. In a statement via her lawyers, Markle denied that she lied to Oprah Winfrey about being “an only child” during the infamous interview in 2021.
The Duchess of Sussex’s reps said that she had every right to say she was brought up as an “only child” after her sister’s accusations regarding the statement. A new document was filed by Markle’s legal team on Monday which said, “This perception is inherently unfalsifiable. It is hard to imagine a more personal and subjective feeling than how one views their own childhood.” It also adds that Samantha “completely ignores” the context in which Meghan discussed saying she grew up as an only child.
It also reads, “Meghan’s response to that question that she ‘grew up as an only child’ was obviously not meant to be a statement of objective fact that she had no genetic siblings or half-siblings. Rather, it was a textbook example of a subjective statement about how a person feels about her childhood.”
The 40-year-old, who was pregnant with her second child during the CBS interview had discussed her childhood at length. She said, “I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows” and added, “I wished I had siblings. I would’ve loved to have had siblings. That’s why I’m so excited to be pregnant so that Archie has someone.”
Samantha’s original complaint was filed in Florida in March and in a new amendment on July 8, she said she could prove the statement made by Markle was false. “The Duchess did grow up with two half-siblings who were involved in the Duchess’ life as she was growing up,” reads the filing. “By publishing these false facts, she was making it apparent that her older sister was an opportunist of the worst kind.”
Markle’s sister also filed a defamation lawsuit against her regarding statements made in a biography called Finding Freedom written by royal commentators Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand while lawyers representing the mother of two called the lawsuit “baseless and absurd,” and a “continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior.”
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