Our Girl star Michelle Keegan slams trolls for not treating celebrities like humans: 'It's relentless'

The actress said the scrutiny of people in the spotlight is "out of order"
Hitting back: Actress Michelle Keegan
Ian West/PA
Emma Powell26 July 2018
The Weekender

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Michelle Keegan has hit out at online trolls, accusing them of dehumanising people in the public eye.

Our Girl actress Keegan, married to ex-reality TV star Mark Wright, refuses to discuss her body hang-ups as she doesn’t want trolls to pick at her insecurities.

She said negative remarks about her online are “relentless” and more needs to be done to clamp down on bullying.

“We’re human,” she told A List. “I’ve got lots of hang-ups but I refuse to comment on them because I don’t want the press to know what they are so they can zoom in on them.

Massive foodie: Michelle Keegan at the Just Eat Food Fest 2018 launch
Dave Benett

“I don’t read anything negative any more — I used to and it did affect me but now there are so many things: you’ve put on weight so you must be pregnant, you’ve got too skinny so you must have gone through something sad.

“It’s relentless and you’re not going to stop it. It’s false and it’s making that person not human.”

Keegan, who was among the stars at the VIP launch of Just Eat Food Fest earlier this month, said online abuse barely existed when she started as Tina McIntyre on Coronation Street in 2008: “There was no social media then but now it’s there in front of you the whole time.”

She has had TV roles in Tina And Bobby and Ordinary Lies as well as playing army medic Georgie Lane in Our Girl. She said she wouldn’t say no to a Hollywood move but that she is keen to tread the boards in the West End – as long as no singing is required.

“I would love to challenge myself,” she said. “It’s alien to me, feeling exposed. Everything I’ve always done is ‘I’ve messed up let’s do it again’ and you haven’t got that luxury. I wouldn’t be able to do a musical I can’t sing, unfortunately.”

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