Meghan Markle looks set for a fresh legal headache as her estranged half-sister, Samantha Markle has launched an appeal, sparking the possibility their bitter court battle could continue.
Samantha is attempting to continue her defamation lawsuit against the Duchess of Sussex in a Florida court.
Peter Ticktin, Samantha's lawyer, has filed an appeal to Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell's March ruling that Meghan's comments during her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey did not merit defamation.
The suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it cannot simply be refiled.
Samantha Markle and Meghan Markle are estranged half-sisters
GB News / Getty
If Samantha's appeal is successful, this would overturn Judge Honeywell's decision to dismiss her case.
A court filing said: "Notice is hereby given that the Plaintiff, Samantha M. Markle, by and through her undersigned counsel, appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the Order Granting Defendants, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, Motion to Dismiss entered by the Honorable Charlene Edwards Honeywell on March 12, 2024."
When asked about her half-sister by Winfrey, Meghan said: "I think it'd be very hard to tell all when you don't know me.
"And I mean, this is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with. Right?
Samantha Markle lives in the US and takes care of her father Thomas Markle
GB News"I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know.
"But I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings.
"I would have loved to have had siblings, so I'm so excited to be pregnant so that Archie has someone."
Samantha argued that statement, among others, was defamatory, with her lawyers saying it was "disparaging, hurtful, and false" because it suggested she was "a stranger, a liar" and a "deceptive fame-seeking imposter with avaricious intentions".
Meghan Markle sat down for an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021
PAJudge Honeywell ruled in March that she "failed to identify any statements that could support a claim for defamation" and dismissed the case with prejudice.
During the lawsuit, Samantha's team launched a broad-brush challenge to Meghan's narrative about her childhood, raising her past account of growing up on the "$4.99 salad bar at Sizzler".
Judge Honeywell wrote in her ruling: "What it means to be 'close'—to share a relationship with someone so intimate that you 'really know' that person—is a subject that might make good fodder for philosophical, psychological, or personal exploration.
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Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior royals in January 2020Getty"However, it is not capable of being definitively answered. [Samantha Markle] cannot objectively prove that she 'really knows' [Meghan] or that [Meghan] falsely felt that their relationship was not sufficiently intimate to justify use of the word 'betrayal'.
"Because this statement is an opinion not readily capable of being proven, it is protected by law from a defamation action.
"As to the defamation claims, each and every statement is non-actionable, either because it is a protected opinion, substantially true based on judicially noticed evidence, not capable of being considered defamatory, or because [Samantha Markle] is precluded from meeting the actual malice standard."
