Entertainment
Jameela Jamil Tweeted She Wants The "Global Bullying" Against Meghan Markle To Stop
Jameela Jamil has never been one to shy away from calling out the unfair way the media treats women — and now, she's using her platform to defend the Duchess of Sussex. On Friday, August 9, Jameela Jamil defended Meghan Markle against "global bullying" on Twitter after sharing an interview where she spoke about working with the duchess on the September issue of Vogue UK.
The Good Place star spoke with Entertainment Tonight Canada about being one of the cover stars on the issue of Vogue that Markle guest edited, and after gushing about the excitement of getting a personal phone call from a member of the royal family, Jamil used the opportunity to ask the British press to be kinder to Markle. "She was so kind and cool and warm and personable," Jamil gushed. "We really give her a hard time in England in the press, and that's because we suck. Because she's great, and no one knows anything about this human, and she's just so graceful and gracious and takes it on the chin, and just continues to power through on empowering young women and women of color."
The actor further emphasized her point on Twitter, where she retweeted a video of the interview, and added, "I wish we were just nicer to [Markle]." Jamil continued, "Nobody deserves global bullying. Especially not a person who hasn’t done anything wrong."
Jamil has previously spoken about how kind the Duchess of Sussex was to her when they worked together on the September issue. "She explained that she’d guest-edited the issue, and apologized that the whole thing had been shrouded in so much secrecy," Jamil told Grazia about getting the call from Markle. "She said she had chosen to feature me because she’d seen what I had been doing and was a fan. To know that she had followed my work with I Weigh meant a lot."
Describing Markle as "warm, kind and actually very LOLs," Jamil also revealed that the duchess is also a fan of The Good Place, and joked about Jamil's character, Tahani, name dropping her on the sitcom. "She said she loved The Good Place. I then felt immediately embarrassed that she had seen me joke about her on the show," Jamil confessed.
However, the actor was able to relax once Markle cracked a joke about Tahani claiming to have set Markle and Prince Harry up on a blind date on The Good Place. "She said she’s grateful to Tahani for introducing her to Harry," Jamil said, "I just replied, 'You’re welcome.'"
Of course, Jamil's defense of Markle isn't just because the duchess is a fan of her TV show — the actor has long been outspoken about the biased way that the media refers to women of color. "Even if I didn't start the altercation, the headline is always 'Jameela Jamil attacks'," she said during an appearance on The Talk in June. "It's always me attacking the white woman, and it's this desperate need to portray women of color as aggressive and violent, and to undermine our opinions. That is something that really needs to stop... It's really racist."
As someone who has experienced such negative press attention herself, Jamil knows what Markle is going through, and clearly wants to force people to realize just how unfairly the Duchess of Sussex is being treated by the press. While Markle might have decided to simply "take it on the chin," Jamil is doing her part to speak up and speak out, and help others find their own strength in the process.