2 days ago
Meghan Markle's Happiest Moments Turned Into 'Ammunition for Hate'
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Meghan Markle pregnancy truthers have turned "some of the happiest and most vulnerable moments" of her life "into ammunition for hate," according to a social media analyst.
A contingent of social media have for years been advancing the unsubstantiated theory that Meghan faked her pregnancy, most recently after the duchess posted an old family video from the hospital while pregnant with Princess Lilibet in 2021.
In the footage, Meghan was doing Starrkeisha's "Baby Mama" dance, but online trolls used the clip to argue her bump looked fake.
Meghan Markle in London on March 11, 2019.
Meghan Markle in London on March 11, 2019.
Samir Hussein/WireImage
Christopher Bouzy, who was interviewed for the royal's own Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan, told Newsweek: "It would be easy to laugh at such absurdity if it weren't so destructive.
"Over the years, these ridiculous lies have cascaded into a full-blown harassment campaign against Meghan and her family.
"We cannot ignore the real-world impact that this kind of sustained conspiracy harassment has. Imagine, for a moment, what it would feel like to have some of the happiest and most vulnerable moments of your life turned into ammunition for hate.
"Every maternity dress and every baby video becomes 'evidence' for strangers obsessively trying to prove your pregnancies were a sham. It is sickening and cruel."
Bouzy and his social media analysis company Bot Sentinel investigated trolling of Meghan online by a group of dedicated social media accounts.
He was also interviewed about it for Meghan and Prince Harry's first Netflix series Harry & Meghan, released in December 2022.
The duchess previously told the Teenager Therapy podcast in 2020 that social media abuse had been "almost unsurvivable."
Bouzy this week said: "Meghan has spoken about how she had suicidal thoughts at the height of the abuse; one doesn't have to stretch to see a link between that despair and the ceaseless torrent of vilification she endured.
"Beyond the personal toll on Meghan and Harry, there's a broader societal damage to consider. When conspiracy theories like these flourish, they corrode our collective grasp on reality and decency."
Meghan announced her first pregnancy with Prince Archie in fall 2018 while on a tour of Australia and the South Pacific and the 6-year-old was born in May 2019.
Her daughter Lilibet was born in 2021 and Meghan released the "Baby Mama" dance video to mark her fourth birthday, on June 4.
In the caption, the duchess wrote: "Four years ago today, this also happened. Both of our children were a week past their due dates... so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn't work—there was only one thing left to do!"
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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