Hillary Clinton on Meghan and Harry’s interview: Young women ‘shouldn’t be forced into a mold that is no longer relevant’

Hillary Clinton on Meghan and Harry’s interview: Young women ‘shouldn’t be forced into a mold that is no longer relevant’

by
“I found it so painful to watch,” Clinton said during a Washington Post show event on Monday, noting that she met the couple, as well as Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana. Clinton called it “moving” that Meghan was not “fully embraced” not just by the “permanent bureaucracy that surrounds the royal family, but by the media in the UK”.
Clinton, a woman who held positions of power as a former first lady, senator, secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate, sometimes faced strong public scrutiny and rejected the press she considered unfair. The British tabloid report on disgraced former US congressman Anthony Weiner, husband of longtime Clinton adviser Huma Abedin, became a significant obstacle to Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

She noted that she experienced the intensity of the notoriously scathing British tabloids, calling Meghan “incredibly talented” and praising the Duchess of Sussex’s efforts to defend herself.

“You know I spent my time in the box with the British tabloids, just like anyone in the public eye had. And their cruelty in going after Meghan was just outrageous and the fact that she didn’t get any more support, which the reaction was, ‘Let’s just cover it up and pretend it didn’t happen or go away, just keep your head down,’ “Clinton said. “Well, you know, this young woman was not about to keep her head down. You know, it’s 2021 and she wanted to live her life, she wanted to be fully engaged and she had every right to expect that.”

Meghan and Harry pulled the curtain on life in the British royal family in their interview with Winfrey that aired on Sunday, describing a toxic mix of press intrusion, bitterness on social media and isolation of a support structure.
Meghan revealed that she found royal life so difficult that she had suicidal thoughts, said there were “concerns” in the family about the skin color of baby Archie and shared that the couple’s experience was exacerbated by often racist and “outdated, colonial overtones. “that appeared repeatedly on their cover.
The interview was followed by a deluge of stories on the Daily Mail home page, despite the disdainful headline from the pre-interview banner earlier on Sunday, in which the media tried to criticize the CBS special as “a side show”.

Clinton said that “each institution must give more space and acceptance to young people who are emerging – particularly young women, who should not be forced into a mold that is no longer relevant, not just for them, but for our society”.

“And 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 only in the royal family, as they described, but more painfully in the larger societies, whose narrative is driven by tabloids that are living in the past. “

She added: “I just hope that there will be some serious and careful consideration in all institutions, not just in response to what Meghan and Harry were saying, but literally in all of our societies.”

Clinton also cited diversity as the key to bringing these establishments into the future.

“Why did we make it so difficult to incorporate diversity, to celebrate it, to be proud of it,” Clinton said, adding that the couple “was not only defending themselves and their children, but they are really trying to send a message about the that institutions, including the one of which they are a part, need to do in order to be more dynamic and forward-looking than they are today.

CNN’s Michelle Toh, Rob Picheta, Jessie Yeung, Aditi Sangal, Tara John, Zamira Rahim and Christopher Johnson contributed to this report.

.Source