Meghan Markle has been at the center of bullying allegations in the past, and now the 40-year-old royal is being sued by her half sister, Samantha Markle, relating to an email she once sent that very same staff member who leveled the allegations. Samantha is suing her sister for libel, specifically relating to an email that the Duchess sent former staffer Jason Knauf before he left his position at Kensington Palace in 2018.
The message within the email was initially private, but became public after it was released within another lawsuit between The Mail on Sunday and Markle. Back in 2020, the book ‘Finding Freedom’ was published as an unofficial biography of the duchess and her husband, Prince Harry. While Markle claimed she did not provide quotes to the book, Knauf offered email evidence that the duchess did, in fact, contribute via a third party that evidently appeared libelous to her sister, Samantha.
Knauf passed along emails to the Court of Appeal lawsuit for a separate issue with The Mail on Sunday regarding an email that Markle allegedly sent her father, Thomas Markle, but with these emails came more information on the duchess’ private communications. The emails show that Markle provided quotes to ‘Finding Freedom,’ alleging that her sister lost custody of her children—a claim which is false.
The libel filing from Samantha Markle was viewed by Newsweek who quoted it as saying, “After Finding Freedom was published in August 2020, [Meghan] falsely claimed in a British court proceeding that she and Prince Harry had nothing to do with the content of Finding Freedom, including the defamatory narrative about [Samantha] and her family prominently featured in the best-selling book.
The filing also added, “[Meghan] assumed that Mr. Knauf was her loyal servant and that her scheme to defame and denigrate [Samantha] and her family would remain a secret.” However, Meghan’s lawyer released a statement to Newsweek rebutting the claims: “This baseless and absurd lawsuit is just a continuation of a pattern of disturbing behavior. We will give it the minimum attention necessary, which is all it deserves.”
