Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle spoke on a SXSW panel with Brooke Shields and Katie Couric
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Meghan Markle gave husband Prince Harry, a shout-out during her appearance Friday at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Markle, 42, described the Duke of Suss,ex as a "hands on" dad while discussing the portrayal of perfect motherhood online and on television.
"Inch by inch, we're getting closer to seeing a much better place and certainly a better online world," the Duchess of Sussex said during the "Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen" panel. "And I think we all just have a responsibility there to weigh in as moms. It is a really, especially as I was saying earlier, when you're a new mom, it is a really vulnerable time and the effect that social media can have on new mothers, I mean, even just the lack of sleep because they spend all this time scrolling and scrolling."
"But it can also be really dizzying for them to see this portrayal of motherhood that looks so perfect when we all know it's not perfect, we all know that it's messy," she noted.
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Meghan Markle praised Prince Harry as an "incredible partner" during her SXSW appearance Friday. (Getty Images)
Meghan Markle made an appearance Friday during a keynote panel at SXSW in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images)
Markle emphasized that she gets help raising her two children, Archie and Lilibet, from her "incredible partner" – Prince Harry.
"I'm fortunate in that, you know, amongst the privileges that I have in my life, I have an incredible partner," she told the crowd. "My husband is such a hands-on dad and such a supporter of me and our family, and that I don't take for granted. That is a real blessing."
"But a lot of people don't have that same level of support," she added. "So I think, for us, it's just trying to put the safeguards in so that women and moms especially, can not feel like they're even more vulnerable when they go online, that they can somehow feel like they are going to a safer place."
While speaking about Prince Harry, Markle gestured out to the audience where the royal was sitting in support of his wife.
Prince Harry watches Meghan Markle during a keynote panel at SXSW. (Getty Images)
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Markle also explained her absence from social media in recent years, touching on the online hate she had to grapple with during her pregnancy.
"I keep my distance from it right now just for my own well-being," the "Suits" star said. "But the bulk of the bullying and abuse that I was experiencing in social media and online was when I was pregnant with Archie and with Lily, and with a newborn with each of them. And you just think about that, and you really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful. It's not catty. It's cruel."
"And maybe in some regards, because I was pregnant, that mama lion instinct just kicked in," she added. "Do everything you can to protect your child and, as a result, protect yourself too. But, you know, I think as we look at what's happening in social media, there is so much work to be done in terms of keeping people safe. That starts as we see what's happening with children, and their exposure to things, but also just creating these habits. What I find the most disturbing, frankly, especially as a supporter of women, is how much of the hate is women completely spewing that to other women? And I cannot make sense of that."
Katie Couric, Errin Haines, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, Nancy Wang Yuen and Brooke Shields at "Breaking Barriers, Shaping Narratives: How Women Lead On and Off the Screen" as part of SXSW 2024. ( Samantha Burkardt/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images)
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Meghan Markle was joined by Brooke Shields and Katie Couric. (Getty Images)
The chat – which included Brooke Shields, Katie Couric, Nancy Wang Yuen and Errin Haines – was livestreamed on YouTube, a platform that Markle called out during the discussion.
"This [panel] is being streamed on one of those platforms, and it's also fantastic, because people are gonna have access to hear all of this brilliance and all of this insight," she noted. "And at the same time, it's a platform that has quite a bit of hate and rhetoric and incentivizes people to create pages where they can churn out very, very inciting comments and conspiracy theories that can have a tremendously negative effect on someone's mental health, their physical safety. So I think we have to really take a look at that."
The panel seemed well received by viewers in the comments.
"I wish it was longer," one watcher wrote.
"So well done," another added.
