Samantha Markle is seeking £62,000 ($75,000) in damages in a legal case lodged against her half-sister, the Duchess of Sussex, who claimed she grew up an only child in an Oprah Winfrey interview.
Meghan could be willing to cave to legal pressure pile on by her sister (Image: Getty )
She claims her half-sister made “demonstrably false and malicious statements” in the interview.
According to Samanthas’s lawyers, Meghan will likely be deposed, meaning she will be forced to provide written statements to court.
But Meghan’s legal team has been scrambling to have the case thrown out of the US District Court in Tampa, Florida, to save Meghan from a grilling from Samantha’s lawyers.
Jamie Sasson, an attorney at The Ticktin Law Group which is representing Samantha, told Newsweek: “It appears to me from what I’m seeing that they’re going to be willing to let us take Meghan’s deposition. It just hasn’t been co-ordinated yet, and the logistics.”
Samantha is suing her Duchess of Susses sister (Image: TWITTER/@GBNEWS))
Samantha’s team also wants Thomas Markle, Prince Harry, her daughter Ashleigh Hale, Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf and Christopher Bouzy, the founder of Bot Sentinel, to provide evidence to the court.
But Sasson said: “I’m pretty certain there’ll be an issue regarding Harry and they’re claiming it’s not relevant.
“So far we haven’t got any dates provided to us for Meghan, so I guess you could read between the lines but our goal is to take her deposition. I’m still hopeful we will prevail on the motion to dismiss.”
This comes after the judge initially rejected Samantha’s efforts to force Meghan to arrange the depositions.
Prince Harry may avoid a forced deposition (Image: Getty )
Instead, the two sides are supposed to sort the issue out between themselves.
As well as the Oprhah interview on CBS, passages from the biography Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand made the same claims that Samantha alleges are false.
Meghan reportedly authorised an aide, the former Kensington Palace Communications Secretary Jason Knauf, to brief the authors before writing the passages.
This included providing them with information about her relationship with Samantha.
Meghan made the claims in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey (Image: Getty )
According to Samantha’s lawyers, Harry is relevant to the case because he also encouraged Knauf to meet up with the authors, messages that surfaced during a separate lawsuit between Meghan and The Mail on Sunday at the UK Court of Appeal revealed.
In an email to Knauf, Harry wrote: “I totally agree that we have to be able to say we didn’t have anything to do with it. Equally, you giving the right context and background to them would help get some truths out there.”
Sasson said: “It’s not like he didn’t insert himself in this based on that email that was uncovered in the Jason Knauf case. Obviously, he was there [during the interview with Oprah]. Were there discussions? What was discussed beforehand? I do think it’s relevant.”
Source: EXPRESS CO UK
