Meghan Markle stands by saying she grew up as an 'only child' after her half-sister accused her of lying during her Oprah Winfrey interview

• Meghan Markle denied she lied when she told Oprah Winfrey that she grew up as an only child.

• The denial was a new response to the defamation lawsuit filed by her half-sister Samantha Markle.

• In legal documents, Samantha said Meghan made her seem like "an opportunist of the worst kind."

Lawyers representing Meghan Markle said she had every right to tell Oprah Winfrey she grew up as an "only child" after her half-sister Samantha Markle accused her of lying in an ongoing defamation lawsuit.

On Monday, a new document was filed by Meghan's legal team outlining a response to Samantha's claims that the Duchess of Sussex falsely told Winfrey she grew up without siblings during her and Prince Harry's 2021 tell-all interview.

Meghan, 40, and Samantha, 57, share the same father, Thomas Markle.

"This perception is inherently unfalsifiable," the new filing written on behalf of Meghan, and obtained by Insider, reads. "It is hard to imagine a more personal and subjective feeling than how one views their own childhood." It adds that Samantha "completely ignores" the context in which Meghan discussed saying she grew up as an only child.

"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," it reads. "Rather, it was a textbook example of a subjective statement about how a person feels about her childhood."

Insider previously reported Meghan, who was pregnant with her second child at the time, spent a portion of the interview with Winfrey discussing her childhood. "I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows," she said. "I wished I had siblings. I would've loved to have had siblings. That's why I'm so excited to be pregnant so that Archie has someone."

In a July 8 amendment to Samantha's original complaint, which was filed in Florida in March, she said she could prove that statement was false. "The Duchess did grow up with two half-siblings who were involved in the Duchess' life as she was growing up," the filing reads.

"By publishing these false facts, she was making it apparent that her older sister was an opportunist of the worst kind," it added. "Her vendetta caused people who watched Oprah and who adore the Duchess to have and display hatred toward Mrs. Markle."

In the same lawsuit, Samantha also sued Meghan for defamation relating to statements published about her in "Finding Freedom," a biography about the Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry. While it was written by royal commentators Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, lawyers representing the Duchess of Sussex said Meghan gave her permission to a friend to speak to the authors despite previously denying she was involved.

Meghan originally filed a response to Samantha's complaint on May 13 requesting the lawsuit be dismissed, calling the suit a "defamation case without any merit" and saying that Samantha's claims were "demonstrably false and the evidence would easily confirm that."

Douglas Kahle, Samantha's lawyer when the lawsuit was initially filed, withdrew from the case in April. According to a filed motion reviewed by Insider, "irreconcilable differences and fundamental disagreements regarding various aspects of this case and strategy moving forward," were why he decided to step back.

Representatives for Samantha Markle and Meghan Markle did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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