The British actress, 33, reignited her feud with the Kardashians by saying they were lining their pockets with 'the blood and diarrhoea of teenage girls' by promoting diet products
HOLLYWOOD’S hottest stars are used to being fawned over – so it must be a shock for them to have a run-in with outspoken Brit Jameela Jamil.
No one is safe from the razor-sharp tongue of the feisty actress, who is on a one-woman mission to take on those she sees as the celebrity world’s bullies, hypocrites and fat-shamers.
Now she has reignited her feud with the Kardashian family, accusing them of peddling weight loss products to vulnerable teens and tweeting that they were lining their pockets with “the blood and diarrhoea of teenage girls”.
She added: “Essentially [they are saying] ‘F*** the young, impressionable people or those struggling with eating disorders — we want the money.’”
Having overcome anorexia and a near-fatal road accident as a teenager, London-born Jameela is now a huge star in the States, thanks to her role in TV comedy The Good Place.
But she is determined not to play the luvvie game of gushing about fellow celebs — and instead picks fights with anyone who does not live up to her exacting standards.
When rappers Cardi B and Iggy Azalea pushed similar detox teas on social media, she said that she hoped they “s**t their pants in public”.
And in February she lambasted fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld as a “fat-phobic misogynist” within 24 hours of his death. Her scathing attack angered model Cara Delevingne, who demanded that Jameela stop “bashing people for attention”.
But the star does not care how many enemies she makes, previously accusing Miley Cyrus of using her “vagina to gain a platform”, criticising Rihanna for posing without pants and comparing Beyonce to a “stripper” for her performance in her music video Flawless.
Previously she has called the Kardashians “double agents for the patriarchy”.
While the former BBC Radio 1 presenter describes herself as a “feminist-in-progress”, fans were quick to highlight her hypocrisy after she “slut-shamed” the stars.
One fan fumed: “Jameela Jamil’s feminism is toxic because she is content to pick at women — low-hanging fruit — when the real work would be to challenge the socio-political systems and corporations whose work started long before the stars of today and will continue long after.”
But it is not just women who have felt the wrath of the actress’s anger.
Breakfast TV’s Piers Morgan had a furious Twitter spat with Jameela in which she branded him “England’s biggest s**t stain” and a “giant pile of w***” after he mocked singer Sam Smith for coming out as of non-binary gender last month.
Morgan copied in the Met police in a tweet after Jameela called him “this thing”, which he said was “shameful misgendering” and claimed it was against the law.
Jameela has been beset by accusations of hypocrisy, including over her “I Weigh” body positivity movement.
She has labelled the airbrushing of photographs a “crime against women” and called for it to be made illegal. But critics suggested it is easy for her to say so when she is so conventionally attractive.
She hit back, tweeting: “I know I’m being a bit extra over this whole thing, but the war against women’s bodies/general image is ongoing and out of control. Teen surgery, eating disorders and self-harm are at an ALL-TIME HIGH.
“So it’s going to involve a big noise to fight back. Don’t like it? Mute me.”
While her outspokenness has proved divisive, Jameela has won support in high places for highlighting feminist issues.
Taylor Swift tweeted: “I’ve learned that society is constantly sending very loud messages to women.
“That exhibiting the physical signs of aging is the worst thing that can happen to us.
“These messages tell women that we aren’t allowed to age. It’s an impossible standard to meet, and I’ve been loving how outspoken Jameela Jamil has been on this subject.”
But Jameela has not always been so fearless.
Born with hearing difficulties, she has spoken openly about how she struggled to fit in from an early age. She was raised in Hampstead, North West London, by her Pakistani mother and Indian father and was a victim of racism and relentless bullying at £15,000-a-year Queen’s College School in Harley Street, central London.
It led to an eating disorder, and Jameela says she did not eat a full meal for more than three years.
She recalled: “I look back at my old school journals and they’re full of self-hatred. Full of me condemning myself for not being prettier, richer, more popular.
“School was horrific for me, constantly an outcast for being a geek. I’ve been every kind of bullied — emotional, physical, racial. I’ve had my body battered and I’ve been called a ‘fat P***’.’’
Worse was to come. At 17 she was hit by a car and nearly killed after running into the road while trying to escape a bee.
Medics warned she may never walk again after she broke several bones and damaged her spine.
She said: “I was on steroids to help my recovery and I gained 5½st. The steroids made me so hungry that I was eating a loaf of bread with every meal.
“The weight gain completely changed the way I felt about my body, and I became very negative.
“I started trying to cover myself up all the time to draw as little attention as possible.” Jameela was bed-bound for two years during her slow recovery and missed out on her A-levels, so she started working in a video shop instead.
She briefly became an English language teacher before being signed up by top modelling agency Premier Models at 19.
She modelled for Vogue and Instyle magazine before trying her hand at TV. Her big break came in 2009 when she landed a presenting job on Channel 4 youth programming slot T4.
In 2012 Jameela made history by becoming the first solo female presenter of the Radio 1 Chart Show, replacing Reggie Yates. Since 2015 she has been dating Brit singer-songwriter James Blake.
Following a breast cancer scare in 2016, she moved to Los Angeles without a job or even a plan.
She said in a radio interview: “I was literally starting again and I was actively discouraged by everyone in England.
“Everyone said I was being mad, throwing away an eight-year career, and that I was too old — I was only 29 — too ethnic and too fat to come over to Los Angeles.”
Jameela admitted she exaggerated her acting experience to bag a role in The Good Place, alongside Ted Danson and Kristen Bell.
She added: “I lied in my audition. I said I’d mostly done theatre because it’s harder to track down.
“I didn’t even have time to get an acting coach, so I basically had to learn how to act from Ted Danson.
“I’m a fast learner and I have an amazing group of people around me. I’m not De Niro, but I’m getting there.”
In the Netflix series, Jameela plays Tahani Al-Jamil, a rich British philanthropist whose name means “congratulations, beautiful”.
The show was nominated for a Golden Globe and has been renewed for a fourth series.
As Jameela’s profile gets bigger, so do her feuds — and she is now in a very Good Place indeed to rock the boat.
