It is no secret that Meghan Markle, now Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is a divisive character in the royalist spaces. At an event in Melbourne during her 2026 visit, she said she was “bullied and attacked” on social media and “the most trolled person in the entire world.”
Prince Harry and Meghan attended an event hosted by Australian mental health organisation Batyr in Melbourne on Thursday, 16 April.
Meghan and Harry have been very active in the mental health space for many years. They partnered with Prince William and Princess Catherine on their Heads Together charity, and after leaving their royal status, they began pursuing other mental health support initiatives through their Archewell Foundation.
At the same event at Batyr, Prince Harry stated that social media had “led to so much loneliness for so many people”. He even opened up about his own mental health journey and confessed that it wasn’t until he was “literally in the fetal position, much older, lying on the kitchen floor” that he decided to get help.
Harry went on to commend the Australian government for its social media ban for those under 16 years of age, calling it “epic”.
“Australia took the lead. Your government was the first country in the world to bring about a ban. Now we can sit here and debate the pros and cons of a ban – I’m not here to judge that. All I will say is from a responsibility and leadership standpoint – epic.”
However, he added that it should have gotten to a point where a ban was required for the safety of children.
Both Harry and Meghan called on social media companies to step up. Meghan said that they were “not incentivised to stop”.
“For now, 10 years, every day for 10 years, I have been bullied and attacked. And I was the most trolled person in the entire world. I’m still here.”
She implored the young students present at the event to be strong in the face of similar adversity.
“When I think of all of you, and what you’re experiencing, I think so much of that is having to realise that you know that industry, that billion-dollar industry, that is completely anchored and predicated on cruelty to get clicks – that’s not going to change. So you have to be stronger than that.”
Read more about the Duke and Duchess’s visit to Australia here.
Quotes from Sam Hall, Press Association in Melbourne
