One of the more controversial stories last week was about Jameela Jamil being called out, via the Instagram stories of an investigative blogger, for possibly fabricating the stories about her various accidents and illnesses. Jameela was getting negative press prior to that for coming out as queer in the wake of criticism for her involvement as a judge a ballroom show. It was a complicated story in that it was first reported that Jameela would emcee, which is not the case she is only a judge. The ballroom community was upset that an outsider was filling a position for which so many other people were more qualified and experienced. Jameela coming out after that seemed disingenuine, to put it gently.

The writer calling Jameela out for her various medical stories, Tracie Morrissey, compiled so many examples from Jameela’s print and video interviews and social media. Jameela has contradicted herself multiple times, she’s added and changed key details of medical incidents, and she’s told stories that have been disputed by other people there, namely Mark Ronson. (If you’re unfamiliar with the background for this story, read our post on it.) People questioned Morrissey’s motives, they went after her personally, and they pointed out that she’s profiting from this as she has a Patreon where she’s posting additional details. It also made people uncomfortable because so many of us have been dismissed for our illnesses, both visible and not. (Without getting into too many details, this has definitely happened to me.)

Jameela Jamil’s boyfriend, musician James Blake, posted in defense of her, noting that he’s witnessed her medical issues, including her two cancer scares. Here’s what he wrote and if you can’t read the text, People has some of it in text form.

“It’s pretty disgusting to watch the woman I love just be dog piled on every day for such ridiculous things… She does this because she had such a difficult life. Because she doesn’t want others to feel alone, gaslit or ashamed the way she has.”

“I am there for her swollen joints, her dislocations, her severe allergic reactions, her constant high fevers,” he said. “I was there for her concussion, her 3 months of seizures, when the doctor gave her the cancer diagnosis, and for all her operations and their complications due to EDS [Ehlers-Danlos syndrome]. I can feel the lumps in her back from the car accident and see all the scars. I am there when she turns down amazing job opportunities because of her health limitations. I actually live with her. Her being attractive, tall, and successful doesn’t mean she hasn’t been sick.”

“Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a very real, very debilitating condition,” he said. “More and more people are discovering they have it, but because it’s vastly under researched and the patients, as with most invisible disabilities look well, people constantly doubt and mock those suffering. May none of us every know the pain and frustration of that existence. I feel lucky not to, watching how many jobs and fun nights out my girlfriend has had to turn down because of what her body can and can’t do. Huge, life changing jobs.”

[From Twitter via People]

I believe that she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which is devastating and real, I believe she has ongoing difficult medical issues. I believe that she has had very scary incidents she’s recounting. Both things can be true: Jameela can have very legitimately awful medical conditions and she can be exaggerating and changing her stories to make for good headlines. She seems to enjoy poking fun at herself and that’s a positive way to cope with what she’s been through. I’ve no doubt that she’s had some really terrible things happen to her. As Kaiser mentioned in our first story about this, there is a definite conversation to be had about women being gaslighted for their medical conditions. That doesn’t mean we can’t notice when someone seems to be changing their story. (These are not minor changes either, please watch the Instagram stories and/or read the original story.) I also think that this became convoluted by the “Munchausen’s” armchair diagnosis, as if Jameela was making everything up. I don’t think that’s what’s happening here at all and it’s not fair to her to frame it that way.

Jameela has called Morrissey a “weirdo stalker” with a “viral conspiracy thread” and she also DMed her for 7 hours defending herself, according to Morrissey, who has posted some of Jameela’s messages to her Instagram stories and more to her Patreon. I’m not going to get into all that, you can see it at the end of her Instagram story thread.

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