Meghan Markle Opens Up About The "Almost Unsurvivable" Online Abuse She's Faced

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry opened up about a number of topics during their appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast. But it was the Duchess of Sussex's candid comments about the online abuse she's received since joining the royal family that caught the world's attention.

Duchess Meghan emotionally spoke about online trolling during her conversation with students from Loara High School in Anaheim, California, who created the groundbreaking podcast to explore mental health issues.

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Meghan revealed, "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 was able to just be manufactured and churned out. It's almost unsurvivable."

The Duchess of Sussex continued, "That's so big you can't even think of what that feels like, because I don't care if you're 15 or you're 25, if people are saying things about you that aren't true, what that does to your mental and emotional health is so damaging."

Meghan also pointed out that everyone in the world experiences bullying to some degree, and from that shared experience, change can happen. "We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt," the duchess explained. "We all know what it feels like to be isolated or othered."

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This isn't the first time that the duchess has opened up about her experience with online trolling and bullying in the press. In August 2020, Meghan discussed representations in the media during a discussion with organization The 19th. "If you’re just trying to grab someone's attention and keep it, you’re going for something salacious instead of something truthful," the Duchess of Sussex explained. "I think that once we can get back to the place where people are just telling the truth in their reporting and telling it through a compassionate or empathetic lens, it’s going to help bind people as a community in a way that I think at the moment we are feeling so much more of a disconnect in a space where I feel we could be feeling more of a connection."

This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.