I’m A Celebrity star Myleene Klass has posted about her experience as someone with Filipino heritage, with her telling fans that she has faced ‘ignorant’ comments
I’m A Celebrity star Myleene Klass has told fans that she’s faced “ignorant” comments and racism over her Filipino heritage. She’s spoken about her experience and recalled an incident that she said happened amid celebrations over her MBE.
Myleene, 47, was awarded an MBE by King Charles at Windsor Castle just last month for services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and charity. The musician said at the time that she was “utterly overjoyed and humbled” to receive the award from the monarch.
The musician, whose mother Magdalena is from the Philippines, referenced the honour whilst writing about having Filipino heritage in a post on Instagram on Monday. It came in response to someone who reacted to a previous post about her having performed at pal Nick Ferrari’s wedding last week.
The troll messaged her to say: “You look so much like my maid when I was living in Brazil. It is interesting that any woman can be presentable when they have money. Well done!” Myleene then responded in two separate posts.
Seemingly reflecting on previous experiences in her life, Myleene then wrote in the first post: “This was said to me at Westminster. At a bankers’ dinner in the City. At the school gates. ‘You look like my Filipino cleaner. My maid. My nanny.'”
She added: “All honourable jobs. But interesting this is the only connection ever made. I am Filipino. I am also liminal. Because our ‘in’ to many countries has historically been through acts of service, we’re often only seen through that lens. That’s why representation and being a positive disruptor matters.
“When you assume my role because of my race, you do more than make an ignorant comment, you limit and define me before I can define myself. That is racism. It is insidious. It is why I proudly walk into the Palace, into Parliament, into boardrooms and business meetings.”
Myleene continued by telling her followers: “Not as someone’s stereotype of a ‘good Asian girl’ or a fetishised trope. But as myself, occupying space that was never intended for me – and making sure my children see that too.”
She concluded by stressing the importance of representation. Myleene wrote: “Representation is not symbolic, it’s survival and how we break the cycle so that our sons and daughters grow up unshackled by the narrow roles society has written for us.”
Myleene then reacted to the message she had received in a second post on her Instagram Story. She said that someone, who she identified as ‘a white cis male,’ shared a “worrying” comment with her whilst discussing her MBE.
She wrote in the follow-up post on the platform on Monday: “WCM: You should move into the Palace at this rate. Me: ‘Because I spend so much time there these days?’ WCM: ‘No because all Kensington houses have a Filipino’.”
Myleene added: “This was said to be by a white cis male at a work gathering for a cheap laugh when my MBE was being discussed and celebrated. The fact this was the WCM’s idea of a joke is the worrying bit and also the reason I’m so proud of the positive disruption and representation I continued to evoke with my work and voice, and by just being ‘a bit brown’ (yeah had that too).”
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