Samantha Markle Wins $75,000 in Compensation from Half-Sister Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle's half-sister, Samantha Markle, has won a major legal victory in her libel lawsuit against the Duchess of Sussex.

Meghan had claimed during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she grew up as an only child, which Samantha argues is a demonstrably false and malicious statement.

The same claims were also made in passages from the biography Finding Freedom, written by Omin Scobie and Carolyn Durand.

Samantha, who is the daughter of Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle, has been seeking $62,000 in damages since she lodged the case in March 2022.

She has accused her half-sister of making false and malicious statements about her in the interview and biography.

Samantha has requested that Meghan, Thomas Markle, Prince Harry, her daughter Ashley Hale, Kensington Palace, Communications Secretary Jason Nolfe, and Christopher Busi, the founder of Bot Sentinel, provide evidence to the court.

Meghan's lawyers have been trying to have the case thrown out of the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, which would mean that Meghan would not be questioned by Samantha's lawyers.

However, the judge has pushed back the deadline for evidence sharing to July 3rd, which is a major win for Meghan's team.

The judge has also rejected Samantha's efforts to force Meghan to arrange the depositions.

One of the key issues in the case is Meghan's true age.

A YouTube video posted on February 9th, which has been viewed over 70,000 times, claims that Meghan is actually 45 years old and not 40, as she claims.

The video quotes what it describes as Twitter messages that refer to Meghan as Pinocchio.

The court papers filed by Samantha state that Meghan was born in 1977, which would make her three years older than Prince Harry and one year older than Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The narrator of the video claims that Meghan revealed her true age in another court case in London in 2021.

The video cites an email that was allegedly sent by Meghan to former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Nolfe, which contained the facts she wanted the authors of Finding Freedom to go over.

The narrator adds that people believe Meghan is lying about her age so that she doesn't seem too much older than her husband, who is 38.

However, Meghan's official date of birth is listed as August 4th, 1981, on the California Birth Index, according to familysearch.org.

This date of birth matches Meghan's account rather than the YouTube video's claims.

Samantha's legal victory means that Meghan will have to pay her half-sister $75,000 in compensation to cover the costs of the lawsuit.

This is a significant blow to Meghan, who has been embroiled in several legal battles since marrying Prince Harry.

In her Archwell website message marking her 40th birthday, Meghan reflected on the importance of time and gratitude.

However, her legal battles with her half-sister continue to dominate the headlines, and it remains to be seen how this latest development will affect her public image.