Clinton defends Markle: 'Young women should not be forced into an irrelevant mold'

Oprah Winfrey recently held an explosive interview with Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and her husband Prince Harry. On Monday, former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, like many others, weighed in on the insights of the royal couple. She decried the sexist standards that women, particularly Black women, are expected to conform to and denounced the tabloids that only strengthened this culture of discrimination. Clinton compared Markle's experiences to her own, as she was also targeted by British tabloids when she ran for President against former President Donald Trump during the 2016 Presidential campaign, CNN reports.

Clinton stated during an interview with Washington Post Live on International Women's Day, "I found it so heart-rending to watch." She mentioned that she had met the pair as well as Prince Harry's late mother Princess Diana. The former Presidential candidate called it "heartbreaking" that Markle was not "fully embraced" by both "the permanent bureaucracy that surrounds the Royal family, [and] by the media in the United Kingdom." Tabloid culture in the UK, much like in the United States, can often be vicious, especially when they target women of color. In fact, when Clinton ran for President in 2016, British tabloid reporting on disgraced former US congressman Anthony Weiner, the husband of her longtime aide Huma Abedin, became a major obstacle on her campaign trail.

Therefore, Clinton continued the conversation by discussing her personal experiences with the media in the UK. "You know I've had my time in the box with the British tabloids, as anybody who is in the public eye has had," she stated. "And their cruelty in going after Meghan was just outrageous and the fact she did not get more support, that the reaction was, 'Let's just paper it over and pretend that it didn't happen or it will go away, just keep your head down.' Well, you know, this young woman was not about to keep her head down. You know, this is 2021 and she wanted to live her life, she wanted to be fully engaged and she had every right to hope for that."

In light of the scathing statements Markle and Prince Harry made regarding British tabloids, Clinton urged for institutions to change. She said that "every institution has got to make more space and acceptance for young people coming up, particularly young women, who should not be forced into a mold that is no longer relevant, not only for them, but for our society." She affirmed, "It was heartbreaking to see the two of them sitting there having to describe how difficult it was to be accepted, to be integrated, not just into the Royal family as they described, but more painfully into the larger societies whose narrative is driven by tabloids that are living in the past. I just hope that there will be some serious thoughtful consideration in all of the institutions, not just in response to what Meghan and Harry were talking about, but literally across all of our societies." She also called for diversity within media establishments.