The 42-year-old Duchess of Sussex got candid about facing online bullying during the 'Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen' discussion at the SXSW Conference.
- Mar 8, 2024
AceShowbiz - Meghan Markle has opened up about receiving online hatred in a vulnerable time. When speaking at the SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas, the "Suits" alum admitted she nearly "succumbed" to cyber-bullying she got during her pregnancies.
The 42-year-old got candid about the matter during the "Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen" discussion. At that time, moderator Errin Haines asked, "Social media really has become the place for women and girls to, be scrutinized, objectified, bullied, and unfortunately I know this is something you are all too familiar with. How have you been able to manage the seemingly endless toxicity that comes at you?"
In response, Meghan replied, "Yes, social media is an environment that I think has a lot of that." She added, "You know I think, it's really interesting as I can reflect on it, I keep my distance from it right now just for my own well-being, but the bulk of the bullying and abuse that I was experiencing on social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and Lili, and with a newborn with each of them."
"You just think about that, and to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful. It's not catty, it's cruel," the Duchess of Sussex further elaborated. "And why you would do that, certainly, when you're pregnant, with a newborn, we all know as moms, it's such a tender and sacred time."
"I think you know, you could either succumb to it, nearly succumb to how painful that it is," she continued, "and maybe in some regards, because I was pregnant, that mammalian instinct just kicked in, you do everything you can to protect your child, and as a result, protect yourself too."
Meghan said it's "disturbing" to see how "much of the hate is women completely spewing it to other women." She explained, "I cannot make sense of that, because I understand that there are certain platforms, today is a really good example, this is being streamed on one of those platforms, and it's also fantastic because people are going to have access to hear all of this brilliance and all of this insight."
"And at the same time, it's a platform that has quite a bit of hate and rhetoric and incentives people to create pages where they can churn out very, very inciting comments and conspiracy theories that can have a tremendously negative effect on someone's mental health, on their physical safety," the wife of Prince Harry concluded.
