Melissa McCarthy will not stand for Meghan Markle naysayers.
The actress, 53, defended the duch*ess of Sussex, 42, against those who feel “threatened” by her, saying she doesn’t understand how someone so “awesome” and “inspiring” can receive such hate.
“It bums me out for every woman and every person that, for no reason, people just like to attack,” she told Page Six at the Broadway opening of “Suffs” on Thursday, April 18. “A smart, interesting woman that has her own life, for some reason, is incredibly threatening to some people.”
McCarthy, who displayed her friendship with Markle during the Suits alum’s 40th birthday celebration in August 2021, added that the duch*ess is “wonderful.”
She said: “I always think, ‘How inspiring!’ I’ve never once been threatened by someone who is amazing. I just think, ‘How inspiring.’ So, it’s really on the people throwing the hate.”
“Strong women are awesome,” she concluded.
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McCarthy sipped tea with Markle on her 40th birthday to help launch the former actress’ 40×40 mentorship program for women returning to the workforce post-pandemic. The ladies joked with one another as a fascinator-clad McCarthy poked fun at Markle’s royal status.
Despite her playfulness, however, Markle has received criticism after criticism since her relationship with Prince Harry first came to light in 2016. Throughout their courtship, engagement and marriage, the duch*ess faced a lot of public scrutiny over everything from her race to her fashion and even her pregnancies with son Archie, 4, and daughter Lilibet, 2.
“It’s really interesting as I can reflect on it — I keep my distance from it right now just for my own wellbeing — but the bulk of the bullying and abuse that I was experiencing on social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and Lili, and with a newborn with each of them,” Markle explained during the Opening Day Keynote Panel at SXSW in March. “You just think about that, and to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful. It’s not catty, it’s cruel. And why you would do that, certainly, when you’re pregnant, with a newborn, we all know as moms, it’s such a tender and sacred time.”
Markle added that she finds it “disturbing” that “much of the hate is women completely spewing it to other women” on social media platforms. The sites, she said, incentivize people “to create pages where they can churn out very, very inciting comments and conspiracy theories that can have a tremendously negative effect on someone’s mental health, on their physical safety.”
Markle shared more about her experience being scrutinized as a public figure in her and Harry’s 2022 Netflix docuseries, , which detailed their exit from the royal family. She claimed Buckingham Palace didn’t do enough to dispute negative headlines that were being printed about her, stating, “I wasn’t just being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.”
She also said that “the truth didn’t matter, the clickbait did” when it came to the false stories that circulated about her.
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Markle’s celebrity friends, including Abigail Spencer and Suits costar Patrick J. Adams, have come to her defense in the past, with the co-founder of Alliance of Moms, Kelly McKee Zajfen, recently calling Markle an “undeniable force of pure love.”
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“You inspire me. You pick me up when I need it and you Love Like A Mother,” Zajfen, who has been supported by Markle after tragically losing her 9-year-old son, George, to a sudden illness in 2022, wrote on Instagram on April 18. “Thank you for continuing to support the @allianceofmoms For supporting this campaign and our youth. In doing so, you are supporting the mission to build bright futures for young parents who have experienced foster care.”
Harry, 39, has been his wife’s biggest supporter since the beginning when he announced their relationship via a lengthy statement defending her from the press abuse she endured in 2016.
“Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her,” the statement read at the time. “It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game.’ He strongly disagrees. This is not a game — it is her life and his.”
