George Clooney, a notable friend of the royal family, recently warned the public and media to not make the same mistakes with the Meghan Markle that they did with Princess Diana.
In an international press conference for Clooney's new Hulu show Catch-22 in Pasadena, California, the actor criticized media treatment of the Duchess of Sussex. Over the weekend, Markle's estranged father, Thomas Markle, leaked a private letter written by his daughter to the Daily Mail. In response, according to the UK's Press Association (PA), Clooney asserted that the media are "just chasing Meghan Markle everywhere, she's been pursued and vilified. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see that."
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"She's a woman who is seven months pregnant and she is being pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was, and it's history repeating itself. And we've seen how that ends," Clooney added.
Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince Harry's mother, had a similarly strained relationship with the media throughout her time in the spotlight. In August of 1997, she died in a car accident that was said to have been caused primarily by her driver avoiding paparazzi. After her death, Clooney gave an impassioned speech criticizing tabloids for invading the princess' privacy to a severe — and tragic — degree. (The two had never met, and Clooney continues to be a vocal opponent to aggressive and unnecessary paparazzi.)
Similarly, Markle has been faced with royal rumors and drama ever since she joined the British royal family — so much so that her inner circle recently called out the "global bullying" against her. Markle even reportedly brought up her concern with the media in a five-page letter written to her father in August of 2018 referring to the tabloid world as a "rabbit hole." "Please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband," she wrote. "I realize you are so far down this rabbit hole that you feel (or may feel) there’s no way out, but if you take a moment to pause I think you’ll see that being able to live with a clear conscience is more valuable than any payment in the world."
Clooney, who attended the royal wedding last year with his wife Amal, added: "You're taking a letter from a daughter to a father and broadcasting it everywhere. She's getting a raw deal there, it's irresponsible. I'm sort of surprised by that."