Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan took to Instagram over the weekend to share an emotional message with fans as she begged them to stop commenting on her body.
"So just a thing – if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me," she told her 1.2 million followers on Sunday (30 January) night. "Most people are being nice and not trying to be offensive but I am just one real life human being and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day."
Nicola continued, "If you have an opinion about me that’s ok, I understand I’m on TV and that people will have things to think and say but I beg you not to send it to me directly ❤️".
The 35-year-old actor, who also stars on the hit comedy series Derry Girls, concluded the post on a lighter note, saying: "Anyways here's a pic of me in my hotel in NY about to go to SNL, it’s unrelated to this post but delighted with my hair in it."
But, this isn't the first time Nicola has spoken out against body shamers. Just last year, she took to social media once again to share a string of tweets calling out the negative attention she's received in regards to her appearance. "Can we please stop asking women about their weight in interviews, especially when it's completely irrelevant," she tweeted.
"Every time I’m asked about my body in an interview it makes me deeply uncomfortable and so sad I’m not just allowed to just talk about the job I do that I so love," Nicola added. "It’s so reductive to women when we’re making great strides for diversity in the arts, but questions like that just pull us backwards."
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She went on: "I mean this in the nicest way possible, I’m not a body positivity activist, I’m an actor. I would lose or gain weight if [it was] an important role requirement. My body is the tool I use to tell stories, not what I define myself by."
Concluding her message, Nicola said it would be "nice" if "we didn’t have to keep having this conversation," adding that she would "really love to never be asked about it [her body] in an interview again."
Well said Nic!
