Hillary Clinton has recently spoken out about how the British press and public have treated Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. As a woman who knows a thing or two about dealing with the ill will of a populace, Hillary is ready to offer a lot of support.
"Oh my God, I just want to hug her!" Hillary exclaimed when asked about her feelings on Meghan. "I feel as a mother I just want to put my arms around her. I want to tell her to hang in there, don’t let those bad guys get you down. Keep going, do what you think is right."
Meghan "has made her own way in the world," Hillary noted. "Then she falls in love, and he falls in love with her, and everybody should be celebrating that because it is a true love story. You can just look at them and see that."
In the BBC interview, Hillary goes on to say, "You know, it’s not easy. And there are some techniques that can be learned along the way, some humor, some deflection, whatever, which I’m sure she will come to. But it is tough what she is going through. And I think she deserves a lot better."
Meghan has revealed more about her difficulties with the British press and public in recent months. In a recent ITV documentary, she said, "I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair. That’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile."
Since Hillary has lived a public life for decades, she's a pretty logical choice for an ally for the duchess. Hillary recently said that she believes racism is part of the resentment against Meghan. She noted, "I don’t think there’s any doubt of it. Even if you go back and look at social media from the time the engagement was announced, race was clearly an element in it."
She also went on to condemn the British press, directly to the BBC: "And to think that some of your [British] — what we would call mainstream media — actually allowed that to be printed in their pages, or amplified, was heartbreaking and wrong."
Hillary had some advice that Meghan can certainly take to heart: Focus on your family. "It’s one thing to be told what it’ll be like when you step onto the biggest stage with the brightest spotlight, joining the royal family, yet it is still really hard to imagine. It takes some getting used to having your every move scrutinized and analyzed and, frankly, things made up about."
Hillary went on: "I really wish her and her husband the very best because they are struggling to have a life of meaning and integrity in their own terms — and that’s hard enough if you’re just walking around in today’s world, but if you’re on that big a platform it’s really difficult."
In the end, Hillary very much admires how Meghan has stood up for herself and for her relationship with Harry. She said, "You know, people don’t choose who they fall in love with — they fall in love. And she is an amazing young woman. She has an incredible life story. She has stood up for herself."
Hillary has been making the media rounds while promoting her newest book, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience. She wrote the book with her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and the two have spent a lot of time visiting talk shows together.
The two were especially excited to visit Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. Hillary noted, "The rumors are true: Chelsea and I are @TrevorNoah fans. Thanks for having us on to talk #gutsywomen, @TheDailyShow!"
Hillary's support is the latest in a tidal wave of public accolades for the duchess. One notable instance happened recently when the women members of Parliament crossed political lines to voice their "solidarity" with Meghan. Their letter read, in part: "On occasions, stories and headlines have represented an invasion of your privacy and have sought to cast aspersions about your character, without any good reason. Even more concerning still, we are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories."
