Meghan Markle is fighting back against half-sister Samantha Markle's defamation lawsuit.
In court documents obtained by E! News, the Duchess of Sussex filed to dismiss the "meritless defamation case," claiming the "dispute has no place in this court or any other."
Meghan's team argued in court documents that Samantha is asking a court to adjudicate whether she and Meghan "had ever ‘been close,' how many times the two ‘crossed paths' as adults and whether Meghan's feelings that she ‘grew up as an only child' are ‘true' or false.'"
"We do not empanel juries to rule on whether two people are ‘close,' or whether one genuinely feels that they ‘grew up as an only child,'" the court documents stated. "Courts are not equipped to adjudicate the legitimacy of a person's feelings about their childhood and relationships. Nor should they be."
Meghan and her attorneys later argued that Samantha's complaint "does not state a claim for defamation or injurious falsehood." They asked the court to dismiss the case and have Meghan receive attorney's fees and costs in connection with the case.
E! News has reached out to Meghan's team for comment and has not heard back. Samantha's attorney released a statement June 30 expressing confidence that the motional to dismiss will be denied.
"We alleged a viable claim for defamation based on the false statements made by Meghan regarding her sister," Jamie Alan Sasson from The Ticktin Law Group told E! News. "For example, that she has no siblings, is an only child. There is no other way to interpret that statement, other than Meghan is claiming she is an only child, which is not true. Moreover, claiming that her sister changed her name for fame, as well as claiming they have only met a handful of times, is more false statements, which Meghan was aware were false when she communicated them to the general public."
Back in March, Samantha sued Meghan for defamation, claiming the royal spun a false "rags to royalty" narrative about herself. In court documents obtained by TMZ, Samantha alleged that Meghan was not honest during her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
When sitting down with her husband Prince Harry for a March 2021 interview, Meghan told Oprah she was never close with her half-sister and half-brother Thomas Markle Jr., who Thomas Markle welcomed with ex-wife Roslyn Loveless before marrying Meghan's mom Doria Ragland.
During the sit-down, she also addressed Samantha's book titled The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister: A Memoir, Part One.
"I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know," Meghan told Oprah. "I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings. I would have loved to have had siblings."
Meghan then claimed Samantha changed her name back to Markle only after Meghan started dating Harry, noting, "I think that says enough."
Samantha has frequently spoken out about her relationship—or lack thereof—with Meghan. In her March filing, Samantha accused the former Suits star of lying about her and Thomas so they "could not interfere with or contradict the false narrative and fairytale life story [she] concocted."
And in 2018, she compared Meghan to a famous Disney villain when sharing an article that stated the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were rumored to be taking a step away from the media.
"OK so Cruella Deville is retreating LOL," she wrote on social media. "Let me know how that works out for you."