[7] She has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph (known as "JJ"; 1949–2021) and Saundra Johnson (born 1952), and a younger paternal half-brother, Joffrey Ragland.
In the early to mid 2000s, she was a small business owner, operating a boutique out of a rented space in a strip mall before filing for bankruptcy and choosing to pursue her education.
[9] She firstly completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and worked as an Associate Clinical Social Worker (ASW) after postgraduate studies.
[10] In May 2018, a few days before the royal wedding, she resigned from her position at a mental health clinic to enter private practice working with elderly patients.
[33] She appeared on the TLC special program When Harry Met Meghan: A Royal Engagement to discuss her half-sister and her upcoming book, The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister.
[34] In an interview with The Sun, Markle called her half-sister a "shallow social climber" whose behavior was not "befitting of a royal family member".
[34][30] In May 2018, Markle told the media that she had suffered a broken ankle and fractured knee after her boyfriend crashed a car into a concrete barrier while driving with her and trying to avoid being photographed by a member of the paparazzi, although Florida police said no report of such an incident had been filed and they had "no evidence" that it had taken place.
"[39] Samantha has promoted conspiracy theories about Meghan, including claims that she faked her pregnancies and that her children were born to a surrogate.
[40] In late 2018, the media reported that Markle had been placed on a watch list maintained by the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre of persons exhibiting signs of obsession with members of the Royal Family.
[41][42] Markle responded to the news by denying that she was obsessed with the Duchess of Sussex and tweeting that the purported listing was "a British media attempt at silencing me".
[45] In March 2022, Samantha sued Meghan by filing a defamation lawsuit in Florida, accusing her of lying in her Oprah interview and seeking damages in excess of $75,000.
[46][47] She accused Meghan of making "demonstrably false and malicious statements" which subjected her to "humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale," as well as damaging their father's reputation to fabricate a "rags to royalty" narrative.
[48] In June 2022, Meghan's initial motion to dismiss the case was rejected by a judge following amendments made by Samantha in her complaints.
[49] Meghan's lawyers have argued that her comments regarding her upbringing in the interview were unfalsifiable and subjective statements of her feelings, rather than objective facts.
[50] In February 2023, legal documents made available by the Florida district court revealed that Samantha wanted both Meghan and Harry to give depositions under oath.
[51] Meghan's legal team described Samantha's requests as "irrelevant", "vague", and "speculative", and argued the proposed deponents had "no discernible connection" to the core issue laid out in the original complaint.
[51] Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell later denied the application to halt the discovery process and moved the deadline for submitting depositions to July 2023.
[32] In an interview with the Daily Mirror in April 2018, Markle called his half-sister a "phony" who had "turned into a different person" and "forgotten her roots and her family" since becoming famous.
[62] After their father's relationship with Meghan soured following his multiple paid interviews, Markle Jr. said on Daily Mirror that "she is abusing his love for her, ...
He created a cannabis product called "Markle Sparkle", reportedly to honor his aunt for her marriage to Prince Harry.
[73] His forefather Heinrich Martin Merckel emigrated to the United States from Lampertsloch, a historically German-speaking town in modern-day France near the French–German border, and later changed the spelling of his name to Markle.