The legal battle between Meghan Markle and her half-sister, Samantha Markle, may get even messier as Samantha wants to depose Princess Kate Middleton as part of her appeal.
In a conversation with Dan Wootton, Samantha, 59, and her attorney Peter Ticktin claimed that the Princess of Wales “might have some very important light to shed” as the defamation battle between the author and the Duchess of Sussex continues. “Obviously something is really, really wrong between these two (Catherine and Meghan),” Peter claimed in the interview published on Monday, March 18.
The duo’s desire to get Kate involved in the proceedings comes six days after a federal judge dismissed the defamation lawsuit against Meghan, 42, brought against her by Samantha. In the suit, Meghan’s half-sister and outspoken critic claimed that the duchess spread “disparaging, hurtful and false” statements about her in interviews and in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan.
In response, Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell found that Samantha failed to provide any statements that supported her claims, while additionally recognizing that Meghan’s estimations were protected due to being either personal opinion or substantially true. The ruling, however, did not stop Samantha and Peter from appealing, and they are now hoping the Princess of Wales will help them in their legal fight.
“There were many people who were anxious to testify and still are, and so much evidence to present,” Samantha told Dan’s Outspoken publication, in which Peter further claimed, “I heard that Queen Elizabeth did say about Meghan Markle, ‘Meghan Markle is evil.’ From someone like Queen Elizabeth that’s not a slight little remark, that is a big big heavy remark. I don’t think that Her Majesty called people evil at all until she would actually look evil in the eye and that’s really what we are facing.”
Meghan has been largely on the outside of the royal family looking in since she and husband Prince Harry started dating. Even after they got married, the duchess and Kate never shared a particularly warm relationship, and Meghan opened up about meeting the princess for the first time in the couple’s Netflix series.
“Even when Will and Kate came over and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner and I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot,” the Duchess of Sussex recalled, noting how informal she thought their introduction would go.
“It’s like I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger. I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits,” Meghan continued. “I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through to the inside…that there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door, and you go ‘Oh … OK we can relax now.’ But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.” As for Kate, she has remained mum on the issues between her and her sister-in-law.
The distance between the two women only expanded with time and with Harry and Meghan’s departure from royal life, a schism that Samantha and Peter seemingly hope to capitalize on.
“We’re still in the fight. Don’t count us out. There’s too much to give up on,” Peter said of their appeal and desire to get Kate involved. “It’s not a little fight between two sisters.
