Samantha Markle's lawsuit puts Meghan's 'credibility on the line', says US attorney

Samantha Markle's new lawsuit against her half-sister, Meghan Markle, could test the Duchess of Sussex's 'credibility', a US attorney has revealed. 

• Meghan Markle's 'credibility' is 'on the line' now that her half-sister is suing her for defamation, according to a US attorney. 
• Samantha Markle has accused the Duchess of Sussex of lying about her family in court documents obtained by TMZ and is now seeking a reported $75,000 in damages. 
• In other royal news, Camilla's 'terror' on her wedding day to Charles over heartbreaking worry.
  

Meghan Markle's 'credibility' is 'on the line' following the news that her half-sister, Samantha, is suing her for 'defamation'. 

In court documents obtained by TMZ, the 57-year-old accuses the Duchess of Sussex of making 'false and malicious statements' in her March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

Samantha claims that Meghan lied multiple times in the explosive CBS special, blasting the 40-year-old for spinning a 'rags to royalty' narrative and identifying as an 'only child'. 

She also dismissed the Duchess' previous statements that she worked to fund her education, claiming that their father, Thomas Markle, paid for the aspiring actress to attend 'elite and expensive' private schools. 

Meghan's attorney, Michael Kump, has since called Samantha's lawsuit "baseless and absurd", adding that it is "just a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior" and promising to give it "the minimum attention necessary, which is all it deserves."

Samantha is now seeking a reported $75,000 in damages from the royal icon, after alleging that the Duchess' 'lies' have negatively impacted sales of her autobiography and hindered her employment prospects. The former actress and model, who lives in Florida, also says that she has suffered mental distress in light of her half-sister's statements. 

However, it looks unlikely that Samantha will manage to convince the court that she deserves a payout. 

"Under US law it is very difficult to win at these types of cases," US attorney Juanita Ingram tells woman&home. "Her sister [Samantha] would have to not only prove that the statements were false but also that Meghan made them with the clear intent to harm her if she wants to prove the malicious claim." 

Despite this, Ingram has warned that the Duchess' legal team should still take the lawsuit seriously—if they want to protect their A-list client's reputation. 

"Make no mistake, Meghan Markle’s credibility is on the line and if she is required to be deposed under oath, it is conceivable that anything can be asked but equally plausible that some topics that are not in the scope of the lawsuit would not be permitted as material to this lawsuit (such as topics pertaining to the royal family)," the award-winning attorney added. 

Samantha first threatened to take legal action against the former Suits star in November 2021, after claiming Meghan falsely briefed about her to the authors of Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carole Durand. 

"I'm speaking to one lawyer in England and one in the US as there are different statutory windows and different issues," she told reporters at the time. The estranged sisters, who today live nearly 3,000 miles apart, have reportedly not spoken since 2016.