Meghan Markle Said the Tabloid Coverage She Endured in 2019 Was "Almost Unsurvivable"
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Saturday, October 10th, was World Mental Health Day, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, sat down with the Teenager Therapy podcast to discuss how to efficiently prioritize mental health—something Markle had to do while battling negative media coverage throughout 2019. In fact, Markle revealed she was informed that she was "the most trolled person" during that entire year.
On the podcast, Markle specifically touched on the notion that cyberbullying and social media influence is even more oppressive now because the world is still partially shut down and many of us are more online than ever before. "Yes, [the internet] is a great way to connect, but it also ends up being a place where there's a lot of disconnection," she said.
"I'm told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world-male or female," Markle told Teenager Therapy hosts Gael, Isaac, Thomas, Mark, and Kayla.
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"Now eight months of that I wasn't even visible," she continued. "I was on maternity leave or with a baby. But what was able to just be manufactured and churned out, it's almost unsurvivable. That's so big you can't even think about what that feels like because I don't care if you're 15 or 25 if people are saying things about you that aren't true what that does to your mental and emotional health is so damaging."
"Even though our experience is unique to us, and can obviously seem very different to what people experience on the day to day, it's still a human experience," Markle said of cyberbullying.
She continued, "We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt. We all know what it feels like to be isolated or othered."
You can listed to the entire Teenager Therapy episode featuring Meghan Markle and Prince Harry over on the Teenager Therapy YouTube page.
Luckily, Markle made it through the storm and it seems like she's a stronger person because of it. As Prince Harry noted on the podcast, "It's very easy to be sucked in and consumed by negativity but we all have a choice to be able to cut that out of our lives."
If you or someone you know needs help out of a bullying situation—whether online or in person—you can go to StopBullying.gov to gain access to resources and help lines.
