Meghan Markle Talks Being ‘One of the Most Bullied People’ Worldwide

Meghan Markle opened up a bit about her life and the bullying she’s faced since being thrust into the public eye with her marriage to Prince Harry. According to InTouch Weekly, Markle spoke with a group of young girls recently to celebrate International Day of the Girl.

Larissa May, founder of the non-profit #HalfTheStory, shared with Vanity Fair how Markle spoke with the teens in attendance about her own troubles and navigating “the waters of social media.”

The experience was meant to help some of the teens open up about their own experiences and how they have handled them in the past. “With Stephanie and Meghan, we talked about what it really means to grow up in this digital age,” she told the outlet in the Oct. 11 interview. “We did an activity where we talked through a bunch of scenarios, and Meghan talked about being one of the most bullied people in the world. We had girls wave these little emoji signs and talk about how each one of these scenarios would have impacted them emotionally.”

As InTouch notes, Markle has spoken publicly about her struggles in the past, including her appearance at SXSW in March. During the “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen” discussion, Markle took a question from moderator Errin Haines on how she has handled the “seemingly endless toxicity” that comes her way.

“Yes, social media is an environment that I think has a lot of that,” Markle said. “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,” she continued. “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.”