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Sienna Miller on taking on the tabloids: ‘It was so toxic – what women were subjected to’
After a bruising battle to expose the red tops’ dirty tricks, the actor reveals the price she paid
In the late summer of 2005, Sienna Miller was appearing in the West End of London in a production of As You Like It. It is hard to remember how things were back then – how feverish the attention around young, female celebrities was and how ferocious the tabloids were in pursuing them. Fresh from filming the remake of Alfie, and dating her co-star Jude Law, Miller was both a style icon (the queen of “boho chic”) and the biggest tabloid target in Britain – as the Observer put it, an “actress and model who has been traded like pork belly on the celebrity market”. When, that summer, the Sun published a “rumour” that Miller was pregnant, her world exploded.
She was 23, panicked, mortified – and obliged to stand on stage eight times a week before a capacity audience of 800 people. She was also, as the Sun had correctly reported, pregnant – less than 12 weeks. Looking back, she still boggles at the grotesqueness of it: “Appearing in public when you’re extremely heartbroken. Trying not to break. All the while being mocked and ridiculed.” The now 40-year-old smiles. “Hell, honestly.”
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