Why Meghan Markle’s Speech About Online Harm Has a Tie to Princess Diana’s Early Struggles

Meghan Markle made an emotional appearance in Geneva, Switzerland on May 17 to speak out on a cause she’s been championing with Prince Harry for years, visiting The Lost Screen Memorial during the 79th World Health Assembly. Like the Lost Screen installation the Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched in NYC last April, the memorial features the phone lock screen images of children who died by suicide as a result of digital harm. During her speech, Meghan touched on online bullying as well as another issue that was close to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana.

Speaking of the images of the young people behind her, Meghan said, “Now their faces ask the world questions we can no longer avoid: How many more millions of children will be harmed by products that, while innovative, are still designed without sufficient safeguards?”

The Duchess of Sussex called the harms of social media a “public health issue,” and also touched on how young women, in particular, are developing eating disorders because of what they see online. She mentioned “a joyful and athletic young girl” looking for recipes online but instead being drawn into “body dysmorphia content and pro-anorexia videos.”

One young woman named Katie was “hospitalized for months,” with Meghan noting the struggles of her parents who had to watch “their vibrant daughter suddenly sick from the social media she logged into.”

Although platforms like TikTok and Instagram didn’t exist when Meghan’s late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, married into the Royal Family, she suffered from bulimia due to the pressures of royal life.

While recording tapes to send to biographer Andrew Morton for his book Diana: Her True Story, the princess admitted her struggles with disordered eating. “The bulimia started the week after we got engaged and would take nearly a decade to overcome,” she said. “My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’ and that triggered off something in me—and the Camilla thing.”

Diana also spoke about her fight with bulimia during her controversial BBC Panorama interview in 1995, calling it “a secret disease.” She told interviewer Martin Bashir that she was too “ashamed” to tell anyone in the Royal Family about her struggles. “You inflict it upon yourself because your self-esteem is at a low ebb, and you don't think you're worthy or valuable,” she added.

In Geneva, Meghan spoke about the need for adults to protect young people from feeling that same type of pain. “Support laws and leaders committed to child safety by design, transparency and accountability online,” she said. “Write to your elected representatives. Ask what they are doing to protect children in digital spaces.”