i was way ahead of the game where i had no idea that if i'd just the coronavirus pandemic has continued to spread rapidly, stuck with it longer, with more than 50,000 people now plus size was going to become having died from the outbreak. a huge industry. but that was something there are also now more i was campaigning for. than a million people infected everything i've always done had been worldwide — that's double the number with a trojan horse intention. from this time last week. that's why i'm in hollywood now. the united states accounts like, i'm here to get my work done when it comes to activism. for about a quarter of all cases. i should say in 2016 you had a yet another health problem when you had a breast cancer scare. ten million us workers have lost their jobs in the last two weeks, yeah, but thank god as the country's economy that was just a scare. shuts down due to the spread a benign lump, yeah. of the virus. undeterred, you went off the weekly figures are the highest in american history. to the united states, treasury secretary steven mnuchin didn't you, and you thought, "oh, says assistance payments should i'll try and work in radio reach individuals within two weeks. broadcasting there," you were asked to audition for a part as an actress, as an actor, and you had never acted before. in europe spain has seen you got the part in the good place, the biggest daily increase in deaths and here you are, acting very in europe, but its infection successfully in this rate is slowing. very popular tv series. in the italian city of milan, that was unexpected success. the main crematorium has very much so. closed its doors to deal with i mean the lump, i didn't come a backlog of coronavirus victims. here in spite of the lump. i probably came here because of the lump, you know, i had a week to find out if the lump was cancerous

now on bbc news, hardtalk. and in that week i had a word with myself about everything that probably caused that lump. all the stresses in my life and also everything that i will do if this welcome to hardtalk, turns out not to be cancer, with me zeinab badawi in new york. and the first thing on that list was move to california, my guest is the british actress, because i've always wanted to know activist and model, jameela jamil. what that would be like. after breaking into the us and so the lump was and the critically acclaimed comedy the fuel for me to go. series, the good place, i was like, right, i don't have she's been getting attention cancer, i'm very lucky, for her criticisms of celebrities i'm off! and i came here, and my first audition was with... like the kardashians, i had two auditions. one was for a game show, like a magic show that was shooting for their promotion of diet products in vegas replacing jonathan ross, and then the other one to millions of young women was the good place with mike schur. and acting was the one that i'd on social media. never done before and i have had is her campaign to make us feel a life lived in the deep end, and so i enjoy challenging myself better about our bodies working? and just seeing how wrong this can go. and the good place — you act the part of an asian woman and you're supposed to... you think you are in heaven, but you're all somewhere else and so on, and it's incredibly popular. but you've used the fact that you are here and that you've had jameela jamil, welcome to hardtalk. these health issues and so on, to raise your voice as an advocate, hello. thanks for having me. which is why a lot of people have

so, you were in your early 20s, applauded your activism. you decided you wanted to go but when it comes to talking into music presenting about body image and so on, and you get this big break, there was a stylist magazine you become the solo female host in august this year where of a very prestigious show on radio you were featured on the front page in the uk. smashing a set of weighing scales. and frances ryan, a british author how important is it of a book about the demonisation for you to break barriers? of disabled people, i think it's very important for me to break barriers. wrote in the guardian, i come from a particularly erased people, you just don't see an online the british newspaper, south asians in positions of privilege very often, that — about the troubled optics especially not in mainstream media. of a slim woman and so it's something that means a lot to me because i was very smashing diet culture. damaged, i would say, by not seeing anyone like me that i could look up to and she says, you know, there's a catch—22 in fighting sexism that women must when i was a child. largely meet the norms, it made me develop a kind the convention of attractiveness of self—hatred because i felt before they are allowed to criticise like i had no worth because i couldn't see worth the demand to be attractive. in anyone else similar to me. everyone else was quite eurocentric in their features, fair comment, isn't it? completely fair. they were all white and had long i've literally been the victim blonde hair and that hurt me. of what she's talking about because i gained and so, now i want to make sure lots of weight when i firstjoined that there is at least one, radio one back back at 26 years old. and now i'm really lucky that i was then nationally fat—shamed

i've grown up in a time for about six months. where there are five — so, i started campaigning very there's five whole south asians heavily against fat phobia in the united kingdom, in this industry that are working in hollywood at the moment. i went and spoke at parliament you say with great irony — five. about it, i released you are the daughter a plus—size clothing line. of pakistani—indian parents, but brought up in the uk. but my activism could only go so far. i was stopped and called bitter how important is your ethnicity to you? and jealous, essentially does it inform everything you do? i was dismissed because i was a larger woman now, yeah, it's very important to me. so, therefore, my opinion didn't count as much because i was too lazy to do the work to be slim and that's it wasn't for the longest time, why i was sounding off about it. that's what i'm saying, that i shunned it so heavily and so now that the same woman because i thought it was is slim, everyone is listening to me embarrassing and bad, and, as if i'm saying brand—new ideas you know, we were so... that people haven't been saying for 30 years! i grew up in the ‘90s, which was such a racist time and so, i feel everyone's frustration, there's no part of me in england and, you know, i got called a paki every single day that isn't denying that i have privilege, i've literally been of my life and beaten the person ignored up for my ethnicity... literally beaten up? literally beaten up, like, you know, because i was marginalised. once with tennis rackets by a bunch of white children. and then one of the criticisms and so i was terrorised at school for my ethnicity and i was one of that magazine cover was that you were featured wearing a white of the only south asian girls — one—piece suit and everybody i was the only south asian girl was saying, "that's not in my primary school, available in plus sizes." and one of maybe four in my entire secondary school and i went yeah. i mean, you open yourself up to a large secondary school. so, it played a big part in my early to so much criticism, don't you? no, but that's fine! years of my lack of identity that was great! and now, as i've grown older, it was great that that happened

because it exposed the fact and i'm getting into my 30s, that the reason i was wearing i've fallen in love with a culture clothes that didn't go up to size 18 again, and love the food and the music and everything, is that i was wearing the sponsors of the magazine. and i realise that i really missed that's how magazines are funded, out on not reconnecting especially stylist, because it's free, you don't buy it. with my culture. and so they rely on money but, i mean, for a child, from their advertisers, to be attacked by a group of white so stella mccartney, etc, all these different designers. these designers do not children, boys and girls presumably, cater to plus sizes. with tennis rackets... the problem is, is that i mean, how old were you? the companies that do go up i mean, what did you... to plus sizes don't have the kind what happened ? of money to be able to fund a magazine like stylist, i was seven, i think i had they can't afford that a tooth knocked out and, level of advertising. if they were funding it, you know, i had cuts and grazes, i would wear their clothes! but i used to get physically abused alright. quite often at school. so once i explained that, i think it highlighted often by girls, caucasian women — i have nothing against caucasian that the issue is it's industry—wide people — but i had a really rough and i understand where i sometimes time growing up and i think get made the scapegoat, i've put myself out there. representation is but it doesn't make me angry, it's a big part of that. because i think if you can't... a really important conversation. you set up i weigh, last year, in 2018, to discuss all these kind media is such an amazing way to familiarise people, of issues, to act as a kind of platform for you and you criticised the public, with different people. and if you don't do that, the kardashians, in then they don't understand people particular khloe kardashian. and i think that sometimes insights i mean, first of all, you actually said they should not fear, and i think children kind just be reduced to women with beautiful bodies or whatever, of felt afraid of me. but you had this campaign to stop celebrities endorsing eating suppressant products. butjust explain to us why you had they disrespected me to fall into a kind of minor clash

and they felt afraid of me with the kardashians over this? because i was different. but really, i'm not different. ijust have a different level of melanin. but you have really had quite a difficult past, medically, haven't you? i just think we're living in this you are born with congenital hearing really bizarre time where now celebrities just have carte blanche loss and you've talked about how to sell whatever they want, you really lacked in confidence however they want when you were at school. i mean, what was behind to young impressionable people, that lack of confidence? you described yourself there's no regulations, as bookish and shy. there are no legal implications to what they are doing. they're selling toxic products a multitude of things. that often laxatives, the fact that i was bullied, not declaring i think it develops, that they are laxatives, not doing things what we do it fed my social anxiety, which had onlyjust... it was sort of cyclical, it was a catch—22 situation. with cigarettes and all kinds then the more socially anxious you become, the more people bully of all other different things you and then itjust kind of gets which is declaring the ingredients worse and worse and worse. and declaring the side—effects. for some reason they are allowed but also, you know, i have to just post heavily photo—shopped ehlers—danlos syndrome, picture and a lie and pretend they drink this shake or eat this which is a kind of invisible disability. lollipop or eat a magical and that's something weight—loss banana or whatever it is they are selling i've had my whole life, and be able to get away with it. i was born with it and that you used very extreme affects my body in every single way. language, is that necessary? you said, for instance, and it means that i'm incredibly of the kardashians,

accident—prone sometimes, that "their pockets are lined and i bleed for longer than normal with the blood and diarrhoea of teenage girls" — people, i bruise much more obviously referring to the fact than other people, it that some of these products have a laxative effect — affects all of my organs, and kim kardashian's response was i think it's part of what affects my hearing, "you're going to have a backlash and so i think when you're a sick for almost everything, child who misses a lot of school so long as you like it or believe and you lose touch with your peers, in it or it is worth it financially, i think that's also difficult. whatever your decision may be, i think generallyjust being deaf as long as you are ok can create a literal feeling with it, that's alright." of a wall between you and other yeah, sell heroin to children, people, and again, this was the ‘90s as long as you back it yourself — that's fine. so it was the ablest time, i'm not saying that is what she sells, much more ablest than we are now. i'm just saying it's so there were just many factors that the same ethos... i'm sure the kardashians don't... just stole my confidence from me. i would not be here right now and then, at the age of 17, fleeing a bumblebee, sitting opposite you or speaking at the un or any of these things a bee, you were struck by a car. if i hadn't made a big noise yeah, the bumblebee wasn't even chasing me. ijust saw it... and sometimes you have to use shock and what happened? culture it is particularly shocking i got afraid and i ran into a car, when a woman and a woman of colour and then that car hit me speaks out because we are the ones into another car. who are the most under nothing has ever been more my fault pressure to be obedient in the world than me getting hit and so i was genuinely angry. by that car. it wasn't just a shock tactic, and so i couldn't walk i was furious and it poured out. for about a year. i mean, you broke several bones, i do not tend to have a filter damaged your spine. because i think that is something yeah, i destroyed my sacroiliac, that is only really like it still doesn't feel right. reserved for women — white men don't seem it's still painful, i still have to have to have a filter to be very careful with myself. in our day and age, especially not but it was a good lesson. the more successful ones —

it snapped me out of... piers morgan, donald trump — they're mouthing off about whatever i'd been very anorexic until then, they want, saying the first thing which was my way of controlling that comes into their mind... the world around me, the british broadcaster, and it snapped me out of my anorexia and it gave me this new relationship piers morgan. with my body where i realised that this was... 0nce i'd lost what it does for me, yeah! i'd lost its use, i suddenly started i reserve that same right and so i say whatever i want to realise everything that i'd had and i wanted to say something that before that i was just hurting and punishing and throwing away would wake people up and make sure over something as simple they knew it was ok for me and ridiculous as vanity. to tell truth to power. and in fact, as a result and so it knocked of yourcampaign, it has been successful — some sense into me. instagram have introduced restrictions on the promotion so, it put your life of diet products so you must feel that's into perspective? a feather in your cap. yeah, i'd do it all again! it wasn'tjust me. i think i had a significant but you were told you'd impact on that change, never walk again. but there were also, yeah, they said just to be clear — it was a possibility. experts and charities involved. they said it was a possibility, related to this body image work they told me that i could never walk and activism that you are doing again, because ehlers—danlos so that young girls and older women syndrome means that your damage is so much worse than other people's do not fall foul of these kinds damage and i'd really badly hurt myself. of things, you have also talked about the sexualisation of women. for instance, family members had to help you have said of beyonce that, you to go to the loo, "she has sexualised herself and it wasjust, like, to sell her records and of doing everything other than having a live you were totally dependent. yeah, and also like, most people with ehlers—danlos smear test on stage." syndrome generallyjust end up in a wheelchair —

a lot of people, sorry, not most — but a lot of it with my condition right, but you are bringing up something i said like ten years ago end up in a wheelchair very young that i've repeatedly apologised for and explained anyway, and so i have been very, and it's my pinned tweet... very, very privileged to be able alright. 0k. but you have said similar things to beat the odds on that. about the over—sexualisation of rihanna... and you mentioned the fact that same time. so you don't — you withdraw you suffered from anorexia nervosa all of those comments? and between the ages of 14 and i7, i have publicly withdrawn in fact, you say you never ate them maybe 100 times, i've done it in magazines, i've explained it, a proper meal. i didn't eat a meal, yeah. i was a rape victim, what lay behind your a multiple rape victim who did not anorexia nervosa 7 you talked about living up in the — know where to project my anger being brought up in the toxic ‘90s, and so i used to take aim — do you think that there i'm going tojust finish, sorry — was something about that decade that i used to take aim at the wrong kind of meant that you ended up target which was women and the way that they with this eating disorder? well, it was the era when you had grown adults, sexualised themselves. not ironically using the term "heroin chic" as if was something luxurious to aspire to. you know, when you had people i should have been taking aim actually dying of famine in the real at the patriarchy that forces us world, a matter of hours away to do that in a way that — from you, we were emulating that look and forcing women to starve i am not saying it is never a woman's choice — themselves until they could barely i believe sometimes it is a woman's function and that was considered glamorous and it was choice and that's great — hyper—normalised, which is so weird but i think that i should have been taking aim at the system that when you look back at it. sexualised me from the age of, you know, being a very young child. so, i grew up in that time. i have been sexualised

for as long as i can remember you know, you had very by grown men. dangerous quotes like, "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" and you had big famous actresses giving weight—loss tips in every single interview. and so, you know, i was consuming all the diet products, consuming all the diet rhetoric, i was just marinated in toxicity, and i was just surrounded by bad role models and that's what's and so i was angry and i did not driven me to rewrite know who to direct that rage at. the narrative on that. do you think that it's better now ifelt like women who sexualised themselves than it was in the ‘90s? were the reason that yes. i was being sexualised by men. it was men who were the problem, 0ur society is, yeah. we've finally got some people those men, not the women. who are breaking through. alright. so not about the criticisms that you've made of beyonce, i mean, but we are still, you know, but just looking at the framework you hear the debate still bombarded 00:09:35,861 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 with tall slim models. in which one can cast this conversation, i mean, there is such a thing as sex positive feminism, as i'm sure you know, a movement that began in the 1980s, the belief that the freedom of sexual expression is an important part of women achieving equality, and beyonce is often seen as the epitome of this and she herself has said, "look, men are free and women are not. you can be a businesswoman, an artist, a mother and a feminist, whatever you want to be, and still be a sexual being, it is not mutually exclusive." i agree. no, you don't need to explain that to me now.

eight years ago i could have done with this chat, but at this point, i fully understand. i really support sex workers, i support the sex industry, i support the sexualisation of women if it is in their power and with their prerogative. i have not said a word in eight years... so, sex positive feminism — a woman, if she wants to use her sexuality and so on. yes, just don't sell laxatives to children. that's all i care about. just do not be a bad, dangerous — don't sell dangerous unregulated products to children and do not ever attribute your physique that is down to a personal chef, a personal trainer, a surgeon, heavy use of photoshop, which you never declare, and pretend that you look like that because of some dodgy powder over the internet. talking about a personal chef, khloe kardashian says she does not employ a personal chef, just putting that out there... she didn't say she has not had any surgery. but cosmetic surgery — is that not the right for women to choose, if she wants... yes! i think i was clear in saying, don't pretend that if you have had surgery that you have not and you look this way because of a magical powder...

it is freedom of choice. i demand transparency from celebrities. it is the very least we can do. we are role models and we owe it to young people who look up to us to be transparent and to tell them the truth. if you want to have your whole face redone, if you want to look like a lion or a giraffe, do whatever you want, just make sure you declare it and you are honest about it because they need to know... but maybe some people want to keep quiet about it. no, no, you don't have the right! so celebrities are different from ordinary women... yes... you are profiting off people idolising you. i'm not finished — sorry — you are profiting off people who are idolising you and who aspire to look like you, but this is not an even keel that we are operating on. you have all of this privilege, you have all of this money, there are many reasons that you look the way that you do and young people feel bad about themselves for not looking like you — i feel like you're just about to interrupt me. it is the time, it's the time. no, i understand.

that is my main point with everything. we got that one. so, the fact that you are a role model for so many young women was the reason why meghan duchess of sussex chose you as one of her 15 female icons on the front page of vogue, british vogue, which she guest edited. so you must have been quite surprised by that, and i read that you thought that it was a hoax. yeah, it was ridiculous. i did not pick up my phone to the first time. i didn't know who was calling me! and then you have gone on from that because you have described the sussexes as very kind, smart, funny people. and, of course, there has been some criticism in the press about meghan duchess of sussex. you said this if her in a tweet, in august — "dear england and english press, just say you hate her because she is black and the duke for marrying a black woman and be done with it." so, what evidence do you have that racism is informing the criticisms of the duchess?

it is so insidious in england that you can't categorically prove it all of the time, as someone who grew up in insidiously racist england. you're not always lucky enough for someone just to call you a paki to yourface. it comes in discrimination and the fact that you can hold up identical things that white members of the royal family do — to meghan markle, she does the exact same thing as one of them — they get hailed for it and she gets torn apart for it with such vitriol and perhaps i am wrong — call me crazy — but the one brown member of the royal family seems to get an awful lot of stick. the one brown member of the royal family seems to get the most abuse by about a country mile. finally, jameela jamil, what next for you? well, i am launching my way into a full activism platform for young marginalised activists who do not have my privilege and my platform, and i'm finding

a way to give them a voice and give them access to the people who can actually change the world and bring to life their vision and so it is going to be content and it is going to be podcasts and books and just a safe space for young people on the internet. jameela jamil, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you. no worries. hello. temperatures topped out at 15 celsius in hampshire on thursday. they will take a step backwards, those temperatures, on friday, but then into the weekend they're on the up. a frost for some of us, especially across the north and east of the uk. plenty of cloud to follow, but sunny skies arrive are heading up,

but with a strengthening wind. high pressure pretty much in control of things, so still a lot of dry weather around for the next couple of days. low pressure gathering in the atlantic as the weekend goes on. it will strengthen a southerly flow coming into the uk, and that's why those temperatures are going to be heading up. and we could well see across parts of south—east england by sunday as high as 20 celsius, the first time we've reached that high since last october. but we're not there yet, and there will be a frost across scotland, parts of eastern england to start friday, maybe —5 in rural aberdeenshire. and a few wintry showers in scotland to relatively low levels in the north, continuing on and off during the day. a lot of cloud in the west to begin the day. there will be a few showers around here, and cloud increasing. we had that cold start to the east, that cold, bright start to the east. still maybe the odd shower, but most places will be dry. sunny spells returning later in the afternoon to south wales, south—west england, those temperatures around 8—12 degrees. a little bit of a backward step compared with thursday. now, overnight and into saturday morning, an area of rain and hill snow

pushes north into scotland, edging further north. the clear skies will be the further south you are in england and wales, and there could be a few fog patches around. still a touch of frost in places, so it is rather patchy in nature, that frost, as the day begins. and looking at saturday, the flows are starting to come in from the south, and temperatures gradually edging up on saturday. it's a slow process, though, and still a lot of cloud around in scotland. the rain and hill snow clearing from the north. in northern ireland, rather cloudy, and northern england as well. elsewhere in england and wales, there will be sunny spells and those temperatures are creeping up. more places in double figures on saturday. the breeze, though, starting to pick up. and then for part two of the weekend, on sunday, a lot of sunshine around. but it will be windy, particularly in the west, and here it will be clouding over. we could well see some outbreaks of rain moving in the best of the sunshine across the eastern side of england. this is where we're going to see those higher temperatures, but higher pollen levels too.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm rich preston. there are now more than a million confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world — 50,000 people have died. ten million americans have lost theirjobs in two weeks, as the economy shuts down to slow the spread of coronavirus as the death toll reaches

almost 3000 in the uk and after days of criticism, the government announces plans to significantly increase coronavirus testing and days after saying staff on board his aircraft carrier needed quarantining, the us navy sacks its captaiin. carrier needed quarantining, the us navy sacks its captain.