MEGHAN Markle has hit out at “trolls” and opened up about spending lockdown in Los Angeles with Prince Harry during a talk at a £10,000-a-head conference today.
Meghan, 39, spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit by video link, saying the current coronavirus pandemic was forcing people to “go through a reset”.
She said: “For me, it’s been amazing to spend time with my husband and watch our little one [son Archie] grow and that’s where our attention has been.
“In addition to, of course, how we can be a part of the change of energy that so many people are craving right now and whatever we can do to help in that capacity.”
She also said “bots and trolls” were changing the way people interacted with each other, both online and in person.
The Duchess of Sussex advised those watching to “focus on living a purpose-driven live”.
She said: “Don’t listen to the noise.”
The ex-Suits star spoke at the summit in a 15-minute slot with journalist Ellen McGirt.
The exclusive online-only conference cost £10,000 pounds to attend.
Meghan spoke about the Sussexes’ non-profit organisation Archewell, which she said aims to “ensure that we are helping foster healthy positive communities – online and off”.
She said: “To see how you are propagating hate, whether passively or actively; to see how you are clicking on things that are contributing to an industry that is really toxic for so many of us, especially as parents.
“We have got to all put our stock in something that is true. And we all need to have reliable media and news sources that are telling us the truth. Without that, I don’t know where it leaves us.”
If you listen to what I actually say, it’s not controversial
Meghan Markle
Meghan said people should not contribute to or “click on” misinformation online.
“And when you know something is wrong, reporting it, it, talking about it, ensuring that the facts are getting out there. I think that is one clear tangible thing that everyone could be doing,” she said.
The Duchess also said commented on the response to her public support for the Black Lives Matter movement and her calls for people to vote.
She said: “If you look back at anything that I’ve said, it’s really interesting because what ends up being inflammatory it seems is people’s interpretations of it.
“But if you listen to what I actually say, it’s not controversial.
“And actually some of it is just reactive to things that haven’t happened, which – in some ways – I think you have to have a sense of humor about it, even though there is quite a lot of gravity and there can be a lot of danger in a misinterpretation of something that was never there to begin with.”
Meghan and Harry spent lockdown at a rented Los Angeles mansion before moving to a new £8 million home in Santa Barbara.
The couple quit their roles as working members of the Royal Family earlier this year to move to the US and gain ‘financial independence’.
Meghan today lost a court battle to block claims she allegedly co-operated with the authors of Finding Freedom.
The Duchess is accused of feeding personal information to the writers of the biography to “set out her own version of events in a way that is favourable to her”.
The former actress is currently locked in a privacy battle with the publishers of the Mail on Sunday, suing the newspaper for printing extracts of a letter she sent to her dad Thomas, 76, saying it breached her privacy.
However, Associated Newspapers last week claimed Prince Harry’s wife had herself leaked details of the letter to the media through friends.
