Meghan Markle - It’s not catty, it’s cruel

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During her keynote discussion at South by Southwest Meghan shed light on the prevalent issue of bullying on social media, particularly emphasizing her personal experiences while pregnant with her children/
Reflecting on the toxic environment of social media, Markle highlighted, “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.”
Markle, who felt unsupported by the monarchy during her pregnancies, expressed her distress over the relentless scrutiny and negativity she faced, particularly in the aftermath of her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, where she revealed her struggles with mental health.
She continued her discourse on the detrimental effects of social media, stating, “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.”
In her elegant ivory pinstriped silk button-up maxi dress, accessorized with gold hoop earrings and white slip-on pointed-toe heels, Markle continued to express disbelief at the cruelty directed towards expecting or new mothers during such a "sacred time."
“You just think about that, and to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful," she lamented. "It’s not catty, it’s cruel. 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."
Markle, who has openly discussed her struggles with mental health during her first pregnancy, also acknowledged how her son Archie provided a sense of protection during her lowest moments.
"I think, you know, you could either succumb to it, nearly succumb to how painful that it is, 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,” she shared.
Meghan specifically criticised female executives at online platforms who host conspiracy theories, disturbing rhetoric and “very inciting comments”.
“There are a lot of women at the highest executive level who are great champions of women and great philanthropists, and they are working in these spaces, and yet they’re allowing this kind of behaviour to run rampant.
“And at a certain point, they have got to put the do’s behind the say’s and really make some changes on a systemic level.”
Commenting on the alarming trend of women perpetuating hate towards other women online, Markle expressed her dismay. “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 incentivizes 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."
Addressing the alarming trend of women perpetuating hate towards each other online, Markle lamented, “Reading something terrible about a woman, why are you sharing it with your friends? That’s the piece that’s so lost right now. We’ve forgotten about our humanity … Even if it’s making dollars, it doesn’t make sense.”
She also expressed concern for the future of her children in a digital age, stating, “As parents, though our kids are really young, they’re two and a half and four and a half… but social media is not going away.”
Prince Harry, author of the book Spare, watched from the audience.