Duke to take stand in Markle defamation suit

THE Duke of Sussex has been called upon to give evidence in the defamation case brought by Samantha Markle against the Duchess of Sussex.

Ms Markle has formally requested that Prince Harry give a videoed deposition, under oath, later this month.

She has also asked the Duchess of Sussex, her half-sister, to make 38 separate admissions in the case, ranging from the fact that Ms Markle regularly drove her to school and took her on shopping trips to the local mall to a declaration that neither Queen Elizabeth II nor the King were racist.

Ms Markle, elder daughter of Thomas Markle, the Duchess’s father, is seeking $75,000 (£57,000) in damages over claims made by the Sussexes’ in their March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey and in the 2020 biography Finding Freedom, which she claimed subjected her to “humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale”.

She has accused Meghan of telling “false and malicious lies” about her fairy-tale “rags to royalty” upbringing at her family’s expense and has contested her half-sister’s claim that she “grew up as an only child”. Legal documents made public by the Florida district court last week showed that Ms Markle wants the Duchess to give a deposition the day before Prince Harry.

Mr Markle has also been called upon to provide a statement, as have Jason Knauf, the Sussexes’ former communications secretary, Ashleigh Hale, Ms Markle’s daughter, and Christopher Bouzy, who runs an internet security company. Michael Kump, the Duchess’s lawyer, has applied for the case to be dismissed.