‘She is a gorgeous woman’: ‘Bridgerton’ star Simone Ashley strongly defends co-star Nicola Coughlan against body-shaming trolls
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Simone Ashley is not in a mood to tolerate the trolls who are body-shaming her onscreen sister-in-law and co-star Nicola Coughlan.
Ashley, who plays Kate Sharma in the regency-inspired period drama ‘Bridgerton’, recently came to the defense of Coughlan who has been receiving vicious criticism regarding her appearance.
While the second season focused on Ashley’s character Kate romancing Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton, the third season focused on Coughlan’s Penelope finding love with Colin (Luke Newton).
With the first half of the season premiering in May and the second half in June, the 37-year-old Irish actress received loads of accolades from her fans. Coughlan was, however, subjected to a plethora of offensive criticism, including the ones accusing her of photoshopping her figure.
Ashley, who plays the outspoken Kate in the show, has now come to the defense of Coughlan while slamming the critics for their thoughtless tirades.
Simone Ashley defends Nicola Coughlan against body-shamers and trolls
Ashley is not forgiving the body-shamers soon and she has put it in plain words. Speaking during the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the 29-year-old actress said, “Yeah, the haters are going to hate, and I think we can all relate to that, but I really don’t think that she’s allowing that to bother her,” referring to Coughlan.
Ashley continued, “She has a strong and fruitful career and entire life ahead of her. And I really believe in her, as the world does as well," per Elle.
The ‘Sex Education’ star added, “I think Nicola is just absolutely flying. She is a gorgeous, strong, confident, intelligent woman, seeing her do this press tour and spread so much joy and inspiration to everyone — especially women — all over the world.”
“And I’m inspired by her as well. She’s also a really kind human being, and I think that’s such a universal language that people can relate to,” she added while gushing over her on-screen sister-in-law.
Nicola Coughlan also speaks out against critics
Even though the ‘Derry Girls’ star has proved her acting mettle time and again, she has been subjected to vile criticism regarding her body. During a recent interview with The Irish Times, Coughlan hit back at the critics.
"If you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me ... It’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day,” said Coughlan.
She continued, "People love to undermine women and their hard work. I don’t think anything has improved unfortunately, but the only thing I can try and do is just go out there and do the best I can do with every job I’m given.”
“And to hopefully get as many different roles as I can. All I care about is the work. Bodies change, if I lose weight or gain weight or I do anything it’s no one’s business, all I care about is doing good acting and being judged on that,” firmly declared the actress.
