Meghan Markle, with her husband Harry Windsor seated in the first row, spoke about the “bullying and abuse” she endured while pregnant with her two children, Archie and Lilibet. The event at the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, marking International Women’s Day, was titled “Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On And Off The Screen”.
The Duchess of Sussex, former actress of the immensely successful series Suits, said in her keynote speech that social media spew “seemingly endless toxicity” and added she now keeps herself away from the risk of enduring toxic comments.
In the virtual world, Markle said, people seems to have forgotten humanity. “The bulk of the bullying and abuse that I was experiencing on social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and with Lili. You just think about that and really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful – it is not catty, it is cruel.”
Harry and Meghan moved to the US and her native California after renouncing the privileges of the Crown (and the obligation to perform their share of royal duties at events around the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth). They have been stripped of the title of Royal Highnesses, which in the complex monarchic world is reserved to people in active duty, but Harry is still a Prince, fifth in line for the throne (after his older brother William and his three children), and the couple retains the title of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan, who pushed her husband to abandon the United Kingdom, has always been very vocal about the abuse she endured from the British press, remembering how they had also harassed Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, and speaking also of the “racism” she had perceived from unspecified members of the royal family.
Their absence must be especially felt for the rest of the royal family in these months, with the heir to the throne Prince William, obliged to stretch himself thin while his wife Princess Kate is still confined at home convalescing after abdominal surgery for undisclosed reasons, and his father King Charles III diagnosed with a form of cancer. The last known visit of Harry to the UK was after Charles’s diagnosis and he was in and out of the country in a matter of hours.
In Austin, Markle also spoke about the importance of diverse representation and different portrayals of motherhood in film and entertainment.
