Meghan Markle’s sister was “forced to move residences, retract from public outings” and “faced realistic death threats” as a result of the royal’s Netflix documentary, according to a court filing seen by Newsweek.
Samantha Markle sued the Duchess of Sussex for defamation and lost, but she is currently fighting on at the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
The cases started life focusing on Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview and passages of the bestselling biography Finding Freedom, by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, but after various bumps in the road, Samantha pivoted to focusing on the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan.
The show, which dropped in December 2022, contained a five-minute segment stating Samantha “was part of the group that was putting out … disinformation” and ending with Meghan saying: “You are making people want to kill me.”
A filing by Samantha’s lawyer, Peter Ticktin, seen by Newsweek, read: “There can be no doubt that Meghan Markle attacked her sister Samantha Markle verbally in her documentary.”
It adds that Samantha “never was part of any group which put out disinformation, never trolled Meghan, was never part of any hate group, never used the N-word on tweets, never monetarized any hate tweets against Meghan, or did anything to make anyone want to kill Meghan or have Meghan made nervous because of any such activity.
Meghan’s lawyers said in their own past filing: “An implicit or express statement that [Samantha] belongs to a hate group spreading disinformation about Meghan is an opinion protected by the First Amendment.”
The case now focuses on a passage in the documentary that cuts between comments made by Christopher Bouzy, founder of social media analysis firm Bot Sentinel, and Meghan’s own words.
Bouzy told the documentary: “So this is not your everyday trolling … It’s insane. And it was done by people who were just not the typical quote-unquote trolls. These are housewives. These are middle-aged Caucasian women.”
“Samantha Markle was part of the group that was putting out a lot of this disinformation,” he added.
The segment ended with Meghan saying: “You are making people want to kill me. It’s
not just a tabloid. It’s not just some story. You are making me scared.”
Samantha’s lawyer argued the “you” of that sentence was not a generic reference to social media trolls in general, but was directed at Samantha herself.
The filing reads: “Meghan now downplays the effect that her own words and the words of Christopher Bouzy and what the publication have had on Samantha, who has been forced to move residences, retract from public outings (such as going to the grocery store, or even earning a living, as she is no longer able to work as a social worker), and faced realistic death threats from individuals who have ‘sworn’ allegiance to Meghan in this ‘fight’ between the two sisters.
“In other words, Samantha has suffered very real effects as a result of Meghan’s intentional, harmful, and disparaging campaign against her disabled sister, Samantha.
“The truth of the matter is that Samantha took no part in any of the online harassment which Meghan faced.
“What he failed to disclose is that none of those accounts were actually owned by Samantha, and that a quick trace of the IP addresses of those accounts alleged to be Samantha would show that Samantha took no part in any of the online harassment.
“She was also most certainly not part of any of the racist harassment that Meghan has unfairly suffered.”
In an earlier filing, seen by Newsweek, Meghan’s lawyer stated: “[Samantha’s] bad faith tactics are for naught: Each of the challenged implications in the opening appeal brief is nonactionable for two or more reasons.
“First, the District Court was correct that actual malice was absolutely lacking here. There is no claim Meghan harbored serious doubts about the basis for Bouzy’s on-camera statements, as required for her to be liable for the statements of a source.”
