Washington: Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has claimed that she was “the most trolled person in the entire world” last year, the media reported.
She made the remarks in a podcast Saturday to mark World Mental Health Day, during which the Duchess along with her husband Prince Harry opened up about the “almost unsurvivable” online abuse the couple faced, reports the Metro newspaper.
In the podcast, Markle said she was told that she was the most trolled person ever last year “male or female”.
“(For) eight months of that, I wasn’t even visible, I was on maternity leave with the baby, but what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it’s almost unsurvivable, it’s so big you can’t even think what that feels like,” she said.
“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.”
She said this was especially an issue for many during the coronavirus lockdown, when “if you’re not in school then you are finding yourself on your devices or online more”.
“Yes, it’s a great way to connect but it also ends up being a place where there is a lot of disconnection.
“We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt, we all know what it feels like to be isolated, and I think that’s why the work you guys are doing here is so important,’ the Metro newspaper quoted Markle as saying in the podcast.
Meanwhile, Harry said that it was “very easy to be sucked in and consumed by negativity”, but everyone has “the choice to be able to cut that out of our lives”.
“Hate following has become a thing, you don’t need to do that. Just as much as we worry about, be concerned, and take notice of what we put in our bellies as a diet, the same applies for our eyes and our mind, what we’re consuming is affecting us.
“For me, I made the choice not to read it, not to see it, and to remove myself from that, and to very much focus on the uplifting and the hopeful side,” the Duke added.
The Sussexes are presently based in Los Angeles after having stepped back as senior royals earlier this year.
For their last public appearance as working members of the Royal Family, Harry and Meghan joined the Queen and other senior royals at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 9.
They have since begun their new life of personal independence in the US, pursuing charity projects.
IANS
