Female MPs sign letter in 'solidarity' with Meghan Markle: 'We share an understanding of the abuse and intimidation'

Letter notes ‘outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories’ regarding Duchess of Sussex

Female MPs sign a letter in solidarity with Meghan Markle (Getty)

More than 70 female members of parliament have signed a letter in “solidarity” with Meghan Markle, as the Duchess of Sussex wages a legal battle against the “often distasteful and misleading” press.

On Tuesday, Holly Lynch, a Labour MP, published an open letter to Meghan on Twitter, where she and dozens of MPs from different political parties expressed their support for the duchess.

The letter states: “As women MPs of all political persuasions, we wanted to express our solidarity with you in taking a stand against the often distasteful and misleading nature of the stories printed in a number of our national newspapers concerning you, your character and your family.

“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 as far as we can see,” the letter continues. “Even more concerning still, we are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories.”

In addition to criticising the media coverage of the duchess, the MPs acknowledged their own experiences of being women in the public eye, writing that they “share an understanding of the abuse and intimidation which is now so often used as a means of disparaging women in public office from getting on with our very important work”.

The female MPs also took the opportunity to assure Meghan that they would use the “means at our disposal to ensure that our press accept your right to privacy and show respect”, and that the stories “reflect the truth”.

The letter from members of parliament comes after Meghan described how difficult she has found it adjusting to the tabloid coverage during an interview for a documentary about her and Prince Harry’s royal tour of Africa.

“I never thought that this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile,” the duchess told ITV’s Tom Bradby.

Earlier this month, Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they had filed a lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday after the newspaper published one of the duchess’ private letters.

In a statement published to the royal couple’s official website, the Duke of Sussex explained that the “painful” impact of “relentless propaganda” against his wife by the British tabloids had driven him to take legal action.