Meghan interview: MP calls for action over media 'hounding' of women

An MP is calling for Parliament to consider action over the press "hounding" high profile women following the Duchess of Sussex's TV interview.

Labour's Holly Lynch - who organised a letter of support to Meghan from 72 female MPs in 2019 - said voluntary regulation of the press had "failed".

The MP said it might be "harder to find very clear guidance" on the issue.

But she told the Guardian that, as legislators, "we have a responsibility to intervene".

The newspaper reported that a number of MPs had made preliminary enquiries about a debate in the Commons in response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey - covering topics such as racism in the media and mental health issues.

The BBC understands that Ms Lynch has written to the MPs who signed the 2019 letter inviting them to a Zoom meeting on Friday to discuss what the next steps should be.

During the interview that aired in the US on Sunday, Meghan said there had been times when she "didn't want to be alive any more" because she found royal life so difficult.

And her husband, Prince Harry, said the UK press was one of the main reasons for the couple's relocation to California.

The pair referenced the letter from Ms Lynch and other female MPs, with Harry saying: "I guess one of the most telling parts, and the saddest parts, was over 70… female members of Parliament, both Conservative and Labour, came out and called out the colonial undertones of articles and headlines written about Meghan.

"Yet no one from my family ever said anything over those three years. And that hurts."

A statement from Buckingham Palace said: "The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.

"The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. Whilst some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately."

The Palace added: "Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members."

Ms Lynch - the MP for Halifax - told the PA news agency: "What we said in that letter was there's got to be an integrity to the British press, to know when something is in the public interest or when it is just tearing down a woman in public life for no reason.

"Some of that will be harder to find very clear guidance, legislation, to make sure that happens in reality, but clearly we cannot have a position where a woman in public life finds that she is feeling suicidal because of the relentless nature of the attacks on her and on her character.

"So we need to find ways that we can create that environment where a woman isn't hounded in the way that we saw Meghan Markle being hounded."

She said MPs take freedom of the press seriously, but added that it "comes with a responsibility to not be engaged in relentless and aggressive bullying of a woman".

And while legislators have said "time and time again" that a voluntary approach to press regulation was the right way forward, Ms Lynch said: "How long do you continue to let that fail before you have to recognise it has failed and say 'what next?'.

"We are in the very early stages of saying 'OK, what next?', because we are certainly at that point."