Jameela Jamil’s boyfriend James Blake has hit out at her critics, saying she is “dog piled on every day for such ridiculous things”.
On Thursday, actress and TV presenter Jamil, 33, dismissed claims she makes up health issues for attention.
Singer Blake leapt to her defence on Friday, saying he “would have spoken on this earlier but Jameela asked me not to”.
I would have spoken on this earlier but Jameela asked me not to. Please read x pic.twitter.com/edpC3BRwd8
— James Blake (@jamesblake) February 14, 2020
Jamil has “just done her best as an ever-learning human, as most of us are, to help other people with her privilege”, he said.
The 31-year-old added: “She does this because she had such a difficult life.
“Because she doesn’t want others to feel alone, gaslit or ashamed the way she has.”
In a lengthy Twitter post, Blake said he has first-hand experience of Jamil’s illnesses.
“I actually live with her,” he said.
“Her being attractive, tall and successful doesn’t mean she hasn’t been sick.”
Jamil has previously spoken about her health problems, which include being diagnosed with a genetic tissue disease as a child, her battles with an eating disorder and damaging her spine after being run over by a car aged 17.
The former host of Channel 4’s T4 responded to criticism of her talking about her illnesses after a social media user claimed in a viral post to have found discrepancies in her accounts of her health.
Blake said: “You don’t know what her life is and has been like.
“But I do and I’m not gonna stand by and let some total strangers try to push my girlfriend over the edge to what … stop her helping kids with eating disorders?
“Stop removing mainstream shame of talking about mental health?
“What are any of you even doing? And why are so many of you enjoying this?
“It’s sick to watch and I don’t ever see men treated like this, the way we tear women limb from limb.”