Meghan Markle has said that she ‘was the most trolled person in the entire world in 2019’ as she and Prince Harry made their podcast debut for World Mental Health Day.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex discussed the stigma surrounding the topic and ‘how we can all contribute to a healthier world: physically, mentally, emotionally and holistically’ with high school students from their Santa Barbara villa.
The podcast, entitled Teenager Therapy, describes itself online as ‘five stressed, sleep deprived, yet energetic teens sit down and talk about the struggles that come with being a teenager‘.
The most recent episode starring Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, went live this evening and saw the couple talk to hosts Gael, Kayla and Thomas about their own experience of mental health.
Meghan said that the impact of the pandemic had pushed people increasingly toward the internet which she claimed opened up a ‘vulnerability’ and a place for ‘disconnection’.
She said:
‘I can speak personally because I’m told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world – male or female.
‘Now eight months of that I wasn’t even visible. I was on maternity leave or with a baby. But what was able to just be manufactured and churned out. It’s almost unsurvivable.’
She added: ‘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.
‘And so I think from my standpoint, and part of the work that we do from our own personal experience, being able to talk to people and understand that even though our experience is unique to us – and obviously can seem very different to what people experience on the day-to-day – its still a human experience and that’s universal.
‘We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt, we all know what it feels like to be isolated or ‘othered’… we are all figuring it out.’
Meghan later added that she is now ‘doing really well’, and said: ‘The past few months have been layered for everyone, we certainly can’t complain, we are fortunate we all have our health, we have roofs over our heads.’
Harry added: ‘The unique part of our work is whatever you’re going through and whatever other people are going through, it’s all relative to that environment that they’re in.
‘For the majority of people I’ve spoken to in London, or in the UK, have been stuck in high-rise blocks of flats, unable to see any open grass or open green space.
‘We’ve felt incredibly grateful and fortunate to be able to have outdoor space where our son can walk his first steps. Outdoor space where he can just have enough space to run and move around. It’s a huge blessing.
‘It reminds me of how many people are stacked on top of each other and have been for month after month after month after month, and what that must do to people’s mental health.’
Source: Daily Mail