Harry and Meghan to be questioned in US civil case

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be questioned as part of a US defamation case brought by Markle’s half-sister. 

Samantha Markle is suing Meghan for “defamation and injurious falsehoods” following Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

Samantha Markle alleges she was defamed when Meghan “falsely and maliciously,” said she was “an only child.” 

A motion brought by Meghan to stop depositions in the civil case from taking place was dismissed by Florida judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell.  

A deposition is a formal statement of evidence in the US, required to be taken of a witness or party to litigation by a court. 

Samantha Markle claimed, in a filing submitted in March, that Meghan made “demonstrably false and malicious statements” to a worldwide audience.

Documents obtained by PA News agency show the original motion.

Samantha brought the action saying around 50 million people in 17 countries had watched the Oprah interview. 

The motion says that it “disseminated false and malicious lies” and had subjected Samantha Markle to “humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale”.

It adds that Meghan had used “the powerful resources of the Royal Family’s public relations operation” to spread “lies worldwide” about Samantha Markle and their father Thomas Markle and describes it as a “premeditated campaign to destroy their reputation and credibility”.

It was done, the motion says, “to preserve and promote the false ‘rags to royalty’ narrative”.