Jameela Jamil wants to make a few things absolutely clear: Meghan Markle isn’t in her quarantine bubble and the Duchess of Sussex certainly isn’t controlling her every move.
After the Good Place actor was pictured strolling a beach with her boyfriend, musician James Blake ― near Prince Harry and Meghan’s new Montecito home ― British tabloids reported that the couples were hanging out and even hinted that they were quarantining with each other.
But Jameela took to Twitter this week to clear up the rumours and set the record straight on her new “best friend”.
“Went to a hotel in SB for a romantic getaway with my boyfriend... and have seen 8 days of articles with increasingly ridiculous stories,” Jameela tweeted, linking to a since-deleted article from the Daily Express.
“None of which are consistent, none of which make sense... (all to now create the lie that she controls me and coordinates my every move.)”
“I’ve met this woman once. Ever,” she added. “These articles are a strategy to now blame her for MY every word and move.
“And to attempt to discredit my calling them out as if it isn’t a *FACT* that they bully and harass her for clicks, to feed Britain’s already sturdy xenophobia.”
When a follower questioned why the British press continued to write about Meghan, Jameela offered a theory of her own.
She wrote: “As the conversation around racism in UK media is heating up, they are scrambling to justify years of racially motivated abuse/harassment by turning the public against her based on lies and rumors.
“Remember how they printed she would ‘thicken the Royal blue blood with EXOTIC DNA?’”
Jameela has repeatedly defended the Duchess of Sussex over the racist and sexist press coverage the royal has faced over the years.
The I Weigh podcast founder said in a separate Instagram post on Thursday that her support of Meghan has led to her own “press harassment” and people offering her family members money for dirt on her.
“Now they are hyperbolising some relationship they have decided I have with her to make it seem as if i am saying these things out of ‘loyalty’ rather than because it’s right to call out misogyny and racism when you see it,” Jameela said. “An attack against her, is an attack on all WOC/Black women.”
“Keep this in mind when you read about her, me or really any woman in media. Especially if she has any colour to her skin,” she added.
Fellow celebrities praised Jameela’s honesty, including Demi Lovato, who wrote: “So proud of you for calling them out.”
“Well done!!” actor Sophia Bush commented. “They don’t know what to do with women who simply tell it like it is.”
While the Duchess of Sussex and Jameela aren’t quarantining together, the two do have history.
Meghan featured the actor on the cover of the issue of British Vogue that she guest-edited in September 2019, called Forces For Change.
The record-setting cover featured 15 women, including Gemma Chan, Laverne Cox, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek Pinault and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The royal called Jameela to prior to the publication of the issue, an experience that she later called “outrageous.”
“She phoned me herself on my mobile phone. And I missed the call three times. They must have thought I was playing it cool,” the actor told Access Hollywood last year.
“I didn’t presume that it was going to be the royal family on the bloody phone, did I? And then at one point the Duke Harry walked in during the phone call and he said hello on the phone. It was all very surreal.”