Meghan Markle Reprises Controversial Claim About Trolls

Meghan Markle told a mental health event in Australia she was “the most trolled person in the entire world,” repeating a claim that has been questioned before.

Why It Matters

The Duchess of Sussex is certainly discussed persistently negatively online as shown in data compiled by social listening platform Hootsuite recently for Newsweek.

However, she has never actually provided the data that gives rise to her account of being the most trolled person in the world in the years since she first made the claim in 2020, during an appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast.

That led some, including archnemesis Piers Morgan, to question the veracity of her account, pointing to analysis that found she was in fact the third most trolled in 2019 based on a study commissioned by Online.Casino.ca.

Needless to say, Meghan’s account to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 of experiencing suicidal thoughts while pregnant with Prince Archie and during a period of intense media hostility in early 2020 sparked sympathy when she made them.

What Meghan Markle Said About Trolls

Meghan told young people at an event hosted by mental health organization Batyr, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, how she had experienced online hate.

“I can speak to that really personally, which is why I like to listen, because it rings true for me in a very real way,” she said on Thursday.

“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.” She added: “I’m still here.”

The 10-year period Meghan mentions takes her from the announcement of her relationship with Prince Harry in late October 2016 through to the present day.

There were certainly inflammatory news stories printed about Meghan during the early weeks of the couple’s relationship being made public, including a piece in the Daily Mail suggesting she was “(almost) Straight Outta Compton” and another in The Mail on Sunday referencing her “exotic DNA.”

Meghan’s comments do not convey that there was also widespread positivity toward her too, shown by both the media and the general public, particularly around her engagement to Harry and their wedding, when thousands lined the streets of Windsor to celebrate.

When Meghan first made the trolling claim back in 2020, she focused on a specific year during her appearance on the Teenager Therapy podcast: “I’m told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female.

“Now eight months of that I wasn't even visible. I was on maternity leave or with a baby-but what was able to just be manufactured and churned out…It's almost unsurvivable.”

What Data Says About Online Sentiment Toward Meghan

The concept of being the most trolled person in the world is inherently difficult to prove because of the vagueness around the definition. How, for example, would a study account for hostility and criticism of elected politicians, which is not usually regarded as trolling but rather legitimate debate in democratic societies?

That may give some clue as to why there have not been many studies to rival the one mentioned by Morgan conducted in 2020 relating to 2019, which appeared to focus predominantly on U.K.-based stars. In it the British singer Adele was found to be the most-trolled celebrity.

Supporters of Meghan may take the view her comments were not intended to be taken too literally and that she was not wrong to suggest she has been relentlessly trolled.

Just last week Newsweek published data showing negative sentiment about Meghan outweighed positive sentiment consistently over a six-month period, based on Hootsuite’s analysis of news stories, social media posts, online videos, blogs, forum posts and other content.

The social listening platform measured 1.7 million posts and 41.4 million total engagements and found 19.9 percent of the discussion was positive compared with 43.5 percent which was negative.

Newsweek's reporters and editors used Martyn, our Al assistant, to help produce this story. Learn more about Martyn.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 4:01 AM.