Meghan Markle's Netflix Show Will Be Scrutinized by Sister's Libel Lawyers

Meghan Markle's Netflix documentary is part of a "crusade to create this story that she came from nothing," according to her sister's libel lawyer.

Samantha Markle is suing the Duchess of Sussex for defamation over statements she made to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 and passages of the 2020 biography Finding Freedom, by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand.

Meghan and Prince Harry are now preparing to tell their story again through Netflix series Harry & Meghan, due to be released in two parts on December 8 and December 15.

Jamie Sasson, of The Ticktin Law Group, is representing Samantha and told Newsweek the team would "100 percent" watch the documentary looking for evidence to include in the case.

He said: "Samantha's position is that this is all more of what she's been saying all along. Meghan is on a crusade to create this story that she came from nothing and she had to do certain things, fight against the system so to speak.

"'I'm the outcast, I'm the one being looked at in this way.' And that goes back to our case. One of the things Samantha laid out in her book was Meghan didn't come from this bad, horrible background like she's trying to put out there.

"Their father gave her money for school and she grew up in this good, family structure. I think its more Meghan's way of creating content and creating this rags to riches story."

Michael Kump, Meghan's U.S. attorney, issued a statement on March 3, seen by Newsweek, which read: "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."

Since then, the duchess' team has asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out and the judge is currently deliberating over whether the libel action has a future.

Samantha sued over Meghan's comment to Oprah Winfrey that she "grew up as an only child." Samantha and Meghan have different mothers but share a father in Thomas Markle.

"I think it'd be very hard to tell all when you don't know me," Meghan told Oprah. "And I mean, this is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with.

"I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know. But 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's side say she did not mean the statement in the literal sense but to reflect her subjective experience during childhood.

A filing by her team from summer 2022 read: "Meghan's response to that question that she 'grew up as an only child' was obviously not meant to be a statement of objective fact that she had no genetic siblings or half-siblings. Rather, it was a textbook example of a subjective statement."

Samantha's team has also included extracts from the biography Finding Freedom, though the passages are not attributed to Meghan and her lawyers say she did not write them.

Sasson told Newsweek he believed Samantha's case undermined Harry and Meghan's account of their experience's in the royal family.

"If she wasn't truthful in what she's saying about her own family members. There has to be some doubt as to the veracity of what she's saying happened," he said.

"I feel confident that we have a viable case in what we laid out," he added. "I think the record is clear about what was said. We have clear proof that it wasn't true and in a defamation case that's what you need to say. Meghan knew it wasn't true when she said it or asked for it to be published."