It's not caddy it's cruel Megan Markle opens up about online bullying during her pregnancies The Duchess of Sussex makes an appearance at South by Southwest in Austin Texas in a panel called keynote breaking barriers shaping narratives how women lead on and off the screen the 42-year-old says she Experienced the worst abuse on social media when she was expecting son Prince Archie and daughter princess liliet through the time when they were infants moderator Aaron Haynes asks Megan how she's managed to cope with the toxicity coming her way and The Duchess responds yes social media is a environment that I Think has a lot of that you know it's really interesting as I can reflect on it I keep my distance from it right now just for my own um well-being 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 new born with each of them um and you just think about that and you to really wrap your head around why people would be so hateful it's not caddy it's cruel why you would do that certainly when you're pregnant you have a newborn we all as Moms you know it's such a tender and sacred time and I think you know you could either succumb to it or nearly succumb to how painful that is and maybe in some regards because I was pregnant that Mamon Instinct just kicked in do everything you can to protect your Child and as a result protect yourself too Megan also notes that a lot of that online toxicity is quote women completely spewing it to other women and I cannot make sense of that because I understand that there are certain platforms look today's a really good example this is being streamed on one of Those platforms and it's also fantastic because people are going to have access to hear all of this Brilliance and all of this insight 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 um their physical safety Megan and her husband Prince Harry previously spoke about the urgency of making the online world a safer place during their archwell foundation's first in-person event in New York City on world mental health day in October the Duke of Sussex is also on hand at South by Southwest to support his wife and she gives him a loving shout out from the panel I have an incredible partner um my husband is such a Hands-On dad and such a supporter of Of me and our family and that I don't take for granted that is a real blessing um but a lot of people don't have that same level of support so I think for us is just trying to put the safeguards in so that women and moms especially cannot Feel like they're even more vulnerable when they go Online