Got her back. Jameela Jamil is defending Duchess Meghan amid a slew of backlash she’s received since joining the royal family.
“People push back against women and try to make them afraid of speaking up because they’re afraid of our power,” the Good Place star, 33, told Us Weekly exclusively at the Girl Up #GirlHero Awards on Sunday, October 13, in Beverly Hills. “They’ve seen with [the] Me Too and Time’s Up [movements] how quickly when we mobilize and when we join forces … how quickly we can make change.”
Why then is Duchess Meghan, 38, receiving all this backlash? According to the U.K. born actress, “The press in England is just terrified and that’s why they’re trying to silence her.”
Jamil worked with Duchess Meghan when the former Suits actress curated and edited Vogue’s Forces of Change issue, which highlighted individuals who are breaking barriers and using their voices to better our world.
“I feel like what it was it was an ode to disobedient women, and may that message carry across and realize that our disobedience got us onto the cover of Vogue, which is the one thing we were told would never happen,” Jamil told Us of the experience. “We were told that we would be shut away and hidden forever if we spoke back and that’s not true.”
The Duchess of Sussex stands up for what she believes in, Jamil continued, and “stands against bullies.”
Jamil isn’t the only powerful friend defending Meghan. Both Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, are supporting the royals as they seek legal action against excessive negative media coverage in the U.K.
The former first lady, 71, and Chelsea, 39, were asked in a recent interview with The Sunday Times if they thought Meghan is a gutsy woman, to which they both replied “Yes!” in unison.
Hillary continued: “Yes, she is. I’m a huge Meghan Markle fan. I do want to say that the way she’s been treated is inexplicable. If the explanation is that she’s biracial, then shame on everybody.” Hillary added that she thinks the former Suits star’s race is “certainly part of it.”
Earlier this month, Prince Harry released a statement defending his wife against “bullying” that he says she’s endured throughout their relationship and her pregnancy with now-5-month-old-son, Archie.
“I have been a silent witness to her private suffering for too long. To stand back and do nothing would be contrary to everything we believe in,” the prince wrote. “There comes a point when the only thing to do is to stand up to this behaviour, because it destroys people and destroys lives. Put simply, it is bullying, which scares and silences people. We all know this isn’t acceptable, at any level. We won’t and can’t believe in a world where there is no accountability for this.”
Reporting by Emily Marcus
