The half-sister of Meghan Markle has filed her third amended complaint against the Duchess of Sussex alleging she published and disseminated false statements about her older sibling.
Samantha Markle alleges she has been subjected to an incomprehensible amount of public scrutiny as a result.
“On a regular basis, Samantha receives hate messages and suffers emotionally from the worldwide hatred, contempt, and ridicule that she is forced to endure,” wrote Markle’s attorney Peter Ticktin in the complaint. “The statements made by Meghan were false, and at the time the statements were made Meghan had actual knowledge that these statements were false.”
Markle’s previous defamation lawsuit against her younger sister based on the book Finding Freedom was dismissed in a 32-page ruling issued by Middle District of Florida Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell with an option to refile a claim for defamation and injurious falsehood based on a CBS interview.
In her dismissal order, Honeywell stated that the Duchess could not be held liable for a book that she didn’t write or publish.
The authors of the book Finding Freedom are Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.
“Plaintiff alleges Defendant relayed defamatory information to her agent and communications secretary, who passed it on to the authors of Finding Freedom, who ultimately included it in their book,” Honeywell wrote in the March 30 ruling. “But this is not the same as claiming that Defendant published the book.”
The Defendants' request that Markle pay her attorney fees and costs was denied as premature.
Among Markle’s complaints against the Duchess is that she improperly claimed her sibling didn’t know her and changed her name to Markle only after she and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, began dating.
“It’s a big lie,” Ticktin told the Florida Record. “It makes Samantha look like a terrible opportunist who is only in this to make money, to get her own fame, and to hurt her sister when that wasn't the case at all.”
Markle alleges that she was called a racist in the Netflix series Harry & Meghan.
“It was alluded that Samantha supposedly did things that she didn't do and when you have this army of bots that get out there and you make these publications to these dedicated fans called the Sussex Squad, the Sussex Squad gets active,” Ticktin said in an interview. “Then you not only get stalkers, you get death threats and your whole life changes.”
The dispute between the siblings began in 2017 when the Duchess and Prince Harry announced their engagement. The complaint states that hostility escalated when Markle employed Christopher Bouzy who worked for Bot Sentinel.
“This guy has the ability to apply his bots on social media, which are like electronic robots,” Ticktin added. “You don't want to get attacked by his bots because they destroy a person.”
Markle seeks a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000.