See you under oath, Harry
Prince in witness box call
MEGHAN Markle’s sister has called on Prince Harry to give evidence in her US defamation court case against his wife.
Legal papers seen by the Sunday Mirror show Samantha Markle has formally asked him to take part in deposition proceedings under oath on video.
She also wants her sister to be interviewed on camera the day before Harry is questioned.
Samantha, 56, has requested Meghan make 38 separate admissions in the case, including that “Queen Elizabeth was not a racist” and “King Charles is not a racist”.
Samantha is suing Meghan, 41, for £60,000 in damages. She claims her reputation was ruined by “malicious lies” her sister told Oprah Winfrey about her childhood during a TV interview in 2021.
Multiple sclerosis sufferer Samantha – who shares the same father as Meghan but has a different mum – was also angered by claims made in Meghan and Harry’s 2020 biography, Finding Freedom.
Samantha says she has been the victim of “demonstrably false and malicious statements” which subjected her to “humiliation and hatred”.
As the case heads towards a possible jury trial in Tampa, Florida, next January, Samantha also wants their dad Thomas Markle and former royal aide Jason Knauf to give deposition statements.
Her daughter Ashleigh Hale and online security expert Christopher Bouzy – who both appeared in Harry and Meghan’s Netflix series – have also been called.
Legal papers filed in Florida on Friday reveal Samantha is demanding Meghan answer 23 questions as part of a ‘discovery’ period – the provision of evidence intended to be used in a trial.
The pair’s lawyers were said to have spoken about the case over the phone on Friday but could not agree on a date for the depositions.
They could go on for up to seven hours each – and be filmed. In the documents, Samantha’s lawyer Taylor E. Young accused Meghan – who wants the case dismissed – of withholding evidence and stonewalling discovery.
But Meghan’s lawyer Michael J. Kump says the demands are irrelevant to the issues in the defamation case.
British-born lawyer Mary Ruth Houston, 61, has been hired as a mediator in a bid to find a solution between the pair and avoid a trial.