The Duchess was accused of spreading “demonstrably false and malicious lies” to a “global audience” in the royal couple’s telling interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
Thursday a Florida judge dismissed the suit, saying the former Suits actress “expressed an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-brother” and that a statement of pure opinion “could not be proven false”.
In court documents seen by the PA’s new office, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell wrote, “As a reasonable listener would understand, the defendant is merely expressing an opinion about her childhood and her relationship with her half-siblings.
“Thus, the court finds that the defendant’s statement is not objectively verifiable or subject to empirical evidence…. The plaintiff cannot plausibly refute the opinion of the defendant about her own youth.
Samantha Markle filed the defamation suit against her younger sister in March 2022, alleging that the Duchess defamed her by giving information to an unauthorized biography called Finding Freedom and discussing their relationship with Winfrey on live TV.
Judge Honeywell also ruled that the Duchess could not be held liable for the contents of the book because she had not published it.