[ad_1]
- By Leisha Chi-Santorelli
- BBC News Culture
WATCH: “Most of the harassment and abuse I was experiencing…was when I was pregnant”
The Duchess of Sussex slammed the “seemingly endless toxicity” of social media and revealed she was subject to “bullying and abuse” while pregnant with Archie and Lilibet.
Meghan was the keynote speaker at a high-profile panel marking International Women’s Day at the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.
She said she now stays away from such comments for her well-being.
Prince Harry was in the front row of the audience watching the speech.
Meghan said people have “forgotten our humanity” in certain parts of the media and digital sphere.
“The most harassment and abuse I experienced on social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and Lili,” she explained.
“You just think about it and you really understand why people would be so hateful: It’s not malicious, it’s cruel.”
The event was titled Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off Screen.
The former Suits actress, 42, also spoke about topics ranging from the importance of diverse representation to representations of motherhood in film and entertainment.
Image source, fake images
Panelists from left to right: journalist Errin Haines, Meghan, former news anchor Katie Couric, actress Brooke Shields and sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen.
Meghan said she found it “disturbing” that women are “spewing” hate at each other online, adding: “I can’t make sense of that.”
“If you’re reading something terrible about a woman, why are you sharing it with your friends?” she asked.
“If it were your friend, your mother or your daughter, you wouldn’t do it.
“I think that’s the piece that’s so missing right now with what’s happening in the digital space and in certain sections of the media: We’ve forgotten our humanity and that has to change.”
At the urging of panelist Katie Couric, Meghan also shared again how a letter she sent when she was 11 to consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble led to a sexist ad promoting a change in dishwashing liquid.
Meghan said that experience showed her the power of speaking out and advocating. “Her voice is not small, she just needs to be heard,” she told a live audience.
Actress Brooke Shields, also on the panel. She joked, “This is one of the ways we’re different, when she was 11 she played a prostitute,” referring to her experience as a child actress and her role in the 1978 film Pretty Baby.
The SXSW main panel event was also simulcast on YouTube, and the majority of comments about Meghan were overwhelmingly positive.
The Duke of Sussex and Meghan have come under heavy criticism, particularly in the UK tabloids, after they stepped away from the Royal Family.
Scrutiny on the couple intensified after a revealing interview on Oprah and a Netflix documentary.
The couple’s public appearances have been less frequent since they moved to California and created the Archewell Foundation. Meghan was last in England in September 2022.
Prince Harry among the audience at the event.
There has been significant online speculation about a possible return to the UK to mark the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, created in 2014 by Prince Harry.
Meghan’s latest appearance comes during a difficult period for the Royal Family, as the King undergoes cancer treatment and the Princess of Wales recovers from abdominal surgery in the United Kingdom.
The appearance of Kate Middleton’s maternal uncle Gary Goldsmith on Celebrity Big Brother has put them even further under the microscope.
On Friday night, he became the first housemate to be evicted from Celebrity Big Brother on ITV.