Meghan Markle made a triumphant return to Instagram on New Year’s Day, marking her first solo appearance on the platform in seven years. Her debut post on her new account @meghan was met with excitement from Royal fans.
However, they quickly noticed that the Duchess of Sussex had disabled comments on her posts. This included her second post, a trailer for her upcoming Netflix series ‘With Love, Meghan’, set to premiere on January 15.
Despite this seeming like an unusual move for someone looking to promote their latest projects, it appears to be a strategic decision by Meghan. She has previously spoken about her experiences as the “most trolled woman in the world ” and the harsh online bullying she has faced.
As PEOPLE, reported, during an October 2020 appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast, Meghan discussed being the “most trolled person in the entire world” the previous year.
“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,” she expressed, and later on shared in the episode, “we all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt,” reports the Mirror.
Meghan Markle also tackled the topic of online trolling in her 2022 Netflix series Harry and Meghan, where she emotionally recounted the intensifying nature of hateful comments, escalating to death threats. “I think for people to really understand, you know, when you plant a seed that is so hateful, what it can grow into,” she emphasized.
Revealing a chilling aspect of her reality, she described, “Just a couple of days ago, I was going through the manual for our security team at home, and on one of the pages that I happened to flip to, it was about online monitoring,”.
She detailed further, “And they’re like, ‘If you see a tweet like this, please report it to the head of security immediately.’ And it just said: ‘Meghan just needs to die. Someone needs to kill her. Maybe it should be me.’ “
The distress she felt was palpable as she said, “And I was just like, ‘Okay.’ That’s, like, what’s actually out in the world because of people creating hate,” continuing with concern, “I’m a mom. That’s my real life. And that’s the piece when you see it and you go, ‘You are making people want to kill me. It’s not just a tabloid. It’s not just some story. You are making me scared.’ Right? “.
“That night, to be up and down in the middle of the night, looking down my hallway, like, ‘Are we safe? Are the doors locked? Is security on? ‘ Is every – that’s real. ‘Are my babies safe? ‘ And you’ve created it for what? Because you’re bored or because it sells your papers or it makes you feel better about your own life? It’s real what you’re doing. And that’s the piece I don’t think people fully understand.”
At the height of the online attacks in 2021, an analysis by Twitter analytics service Bot Sentinel revealed Harry and Meghan were the targets of a “brazenly co-ordinated hate network” with just 83 accounts driving 70 per cent of all disparaging content aimed at the duo, including racial slurs. These accounts had an approximate collective reach of 17 million users.
Only a year earlier, Meghan had shared her distress over the spread of harmful messaging and falsehoods, speaking out on the need for a gentler technological platform that effectively addresses misinformation. Using her ordeal as an illustration, she said at the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit, “If you look back at anything I’ve said, what ends up being inflammatory is people’s interpretation of it. But if you listen to what I actually say, it’s not controversial.”
“When you look at what these platforms are capable of with that reach, and what that propels in terms of trolling … You can either train people to be cruel, or you can train people to be kind. It’s really that simple,” Meghan stated. Instead of being manipulated by trolls, Meghan has chosen to cut off their access to her completely.
By limiting the ability to comment on her posts, she is now taking control of the latest chapter of her life, which she refers to as her “chapter of joy.”
Concentrating on things she feels passionate about and savouring every moment, the Duchess previously shared her outlook for the upcoming year during her 2024 Colombia tour. “My intentionality is to enjoy this chapter and to be able to move through every piece of that as best as I can,” Meghan expressed while in the South American country.