News/Commentary

Experts pick apart latest legal drama involving Meghan Markle: ‘Maybe you’re the problem’

February 18, 2023 | | Print Article

Family squabbles can often be messy, but when you’re an American actress from Canoga Park and you marry the youngest son of the People’s Princess, they can lead to straight-up carnage.

Such is the very public war between Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, and her estranged half-sister Samantha, who has made a career out of bashing her more successful sibling for a salivating press.

Samantha sued Meghan in 2022 for defamation, alleging the perpetually-vilified wife of Prince Harry made “false” statements during a 2021 sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.

“Samantha alleged that the duchess’ ‘lies’ were ‘designed to destroy [her] reputation’ and have subjected her to ‘humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale,'” Fox News Digital (FND) reports.

During the infamous Oprah interview, Meghan discussed the “media frenzy” surrounding her relationship with Harry and her horror at discovering her own father, Samantha’s dad, was working with the tabloids. On top of that, her “humiliated” half-sister wrote a tell-all book prior to the interview that was supposedly meant to “destroy” her.


(Video: YouTube)

All of this family dysfunction became fodder for the titillated tabloids, and, to hear Meghan tell it, rather than shield her and Harry, Buckingham Palace allegedly encouraged the chaos.

Meanwhile, in America, the very same people screaming about our government’s involvement in controlling the Biden-friendly narrative on social media can’t seem to imagine a scenario in which the Royal Family might use their American in-law as a distraction or one in which Meghan Markle isn’t a conniving, whining, narcissist.

According to Annie Pace Scranton, CEO of Pace Public Relations, the Duchess of Sussex will likely adopt the Royal mantra of “keep calm, carry on” in the face of her legal battle with her sister.

“I don’t think this lawsuit will impact Meghan Markle’s image at all because the American public has, in large part, already formed their opinions about her,” she told FND. “She’s said repeatedly that her priority is her family and doing good in the world, which I think is wonderful. [That] should continue to be her focus.”

But according to celebrity branding expert and founder of Achilles PR, Doug Eldridge, Meghan Markle and her insistence on being the “victim” is “the problem.”

“The problem is that this is not a viable long-term strategy in the context of victim marketing or victim branding, if you will,” he explained. “The problem is that it only goes so far. That’s not something that you can build a long-term brand on… Maybe it’s ‘strike while the iron is hot. While we have the attention, let’s control the narrative’… Who knows how it’s going to balance out either in the court of law or in the court of public opinion, but from 10,000 feet, you can see it for what it is. It’s using the victimhood positioning as a short-term marketing strategy, and I hate it for a lot of reasons… I think it creates dishonest and disingenuous positioning in the marketplace, and it doesn’t lead to a positive productive place.”

“If you walk into 10 rooms, and you have a problem with somebody in every room, the only commonality in all of those rooms is you,” he said. “If you have a situation where you have a falling out with your father, your sister and your husband’s family — if you go into 10 different rooms and have a problem with somebody in every room, maybe you’re the problem.”

As the May coronation of King Charles III approaches, dealing with Samantha’s allegations takes on a heightened sense of urgency.

“If Samantha can prove that Meghan branded her, on a global scale, a liar and an unfit parent, and it negatively affected her way of life and income, a judge might allow the case to go to a jury,” Kinsey Schofield, host of the “To Di For Daily” podcast, told Fox News Digital.

Schofield notes that Samantha would turn a trial into a “circus.”

“It would be embarrassing for Meghan because Samantha would likely make it a circus,” she said. “Sam is already saying she wants to ask Harry and Meghan in a deposition whether or not the royal family is racist. Kind of irrelevant to her court claims, but this is the type of thing we would see if the case moves forward. Most people watching this case have suggested Meghan settle with the mediator to ensure no depositions take place and to save the duke and duchess any further humiliation.”

But the podcaster is clearly no fan of the duchess.

“While monetizing off your family sounds tacky,” she said, “it’s ironically exactly what Harry and Meghan have been doing for the last three years.”

Melissa Fine
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