The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recorded the podcast earlier this week in their new hometown of Montecito. Photo / Instagram, Teenager Therapy
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex recorded the podcast earlier this week in their new hometown of Montecito. Photo / Instagram, Teenager Therapy
Meghan Markle said she was "the most trolled person in the entire world in 2019", even though she was out of the spotlight for most of it on maternity leave.
The Duchess of Sussex opened up about her mental health for the podcast Teenager Therapy, to mark World Mental Health Day.
Meghan and Harry sat down with three high school students and podcast hosts Gael, Kayla and Thomas at the couple's Santa Barbara villa to discuss the topic of mental health and how we can all contribute to a healthier world "physically, mentally, emotionally and holistically".
Meghan and Harry now live in LA. Photo / Getty Images
"I can speak personally because I'm told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world - male or female," the Duchess told the podcast.
"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 added she is now doing "really well". "We certainly can't complain, we are fortunate we all have our health, we have roofs over our heads," she said.
Prince Harry explained that mental health struggles have to be seen in the context of the environment people are in.
"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," he said.
"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.
The couple with baby Archie during their visit to South Africa. Photo / Getty Images
"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."
He recommended "putting your self-care as a priority" through these times.
"Vulnerability is not a weakness, showing vulnerability in today's world, especially, is a strength," he said.
"We could certainly see that more from some of those global leaders, because we got ourselves into this very deep hole which we need to come out of."
According to Prince Harry, everyone's situation is unique.
"For Meghan, she said on a global scale, that's what happened in 2019, but if you're a young girl or young boy at school, that's your world, so if you're being attacked, or being bullied or whatever is online ... it feels the same," he said.
"Hate following has become a thing, you don't need to do that. Just as much as we worry about, be concerned, and take notice of what we put in our bellies as a diet, the same applies for our eyes and our mind. What we're consuming is affecting us.
"For me, I made the choice not to read it, not to see it, and to remove myself from that, and to very much focus on the uplifting and the hopeful side."
He says it all comes down to control: "You can control what you see, you can control what you do, so whether it's notifications or whether it's vibration ringtones, whatever it is, these things control you, rather than taking control."
The Duke believes the conversation around mental health needs to shift from focusing on a group of people who are struggling to everyone else.
"Rather than mental health being focused on the people that are struggling, it needs to go much wider than that, and to the acceptance and the appreciation that every single one of us have mental health, and every single one of us have got stuff going on that we either need to talk about or that we need help with, or that we have some form of compassion and empathy for other people that are going through something similar," he said.
