Samantha Markle says Prince Harry needs ‘counselling’

Meghan Markle is set to head to court to fight a defamation lawsuit filed by her half-sister Samantha Markle.

Samantha filed an amended lawsuit against her royal half-sibling after her initial complaint was thrown out by a Florida judge in March. A trial date has now been set for November 2024.

Samantha is seeking $75,000 (£59,466) in damages, claiming the statements Meghan made to Oprah damaged her reputation as well as the credibility of her book about their close relationship.

The judge also scheduled an “in-person” meeting to take place before the trial. As the lawsuit is due to be presented in civil court, Meghan will not have to appear should the proceedings go ahead.

The Duchess of Sussex filed a motion to have her half-sister new lawsuit dismissed in May but the Tampa court judge has yet to rule on her request.

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In the new suit, Samatha reiterates her claim that the Duchess of Sussex defamed her in her infamous interview with Oprah Winfrey by claiming she had grown up an only child.

The 59-year-old alleges that that claim, paired with the comment that Meghan “doesn’t really know her” was defamatory.

Samantha’s lawyer Peter Ticktin told Newsweek he is confident the judge will not dismiss the case.

Ticktin said: “Once I explained how and why Meghan did what she did, to discourage readers from reading Samantha’s book which was titled with the name ‘Princess Pushy’ in it, the whole case made more sense.”

But the Duchess’s representative, Michael Klump, dismissed the case as baseless.

Klump said: “This has always been a lawsuit in search of a viable claim.

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“The case has failed because it runs head first up against defamation law and the First Amendment.”

The Duchess of Sussex and Samantha share father Thomas Markle, with whom the royal is also estranged.

Samantha has continued to maintain that the pair were very close when the royal was younger and that she “helped Meghan with her homework.”

The lawsuit she filed read: “Once Meghan started to have success as an actress, she no longer had time for her older sister, Samantha, and by 2016, the two had stopped visiting, though there were no bad feelings between them, as far as Samantha knew.

“Unfortunately, once Meghan met and began dating Prince Harry Meghan became hostile to Samantha, as well as her half-brother and her father, and Meghan’s relationship with Samantha became estranged.”

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