Like most people by now, I’ve watched the Meghan and Harry interview with Oprah. I’m not going to focus much on the interview in itself, but more on how it’s been received by the general public, and more specifically, the attack on Meghan for speaking her truth.
I’m appalled by how ignorant people are and how mental health still, in 2021, isn’t taken seriously!
Now, obviously I don’t know Meghan personally, and I’m not that knowledgeable when it comes to the Royal Family and how the titles are given or whom they’re given to. That said, when I listened to Meghan tell her story, my heart broke for her. What I heard and saw was a mother who did all she could to protect her family. She tried her best to assimilate and do all the things she was asked to do; to smile, to say ‘no comment’, to believe that they knew what was best for her and that they were protecting her.
When Meghan spoke out about her not wanting to live anymore, and that she’d been having suicidal thoughts, rather than support it seems she’s received mostly slander. It’s absolutely horrendous! A lot of people took to social media to troll Meghan by saying that she was saying all these things because she wanted attention. Cringe! Is there a response more stereotypical than that? Particularly when it is a woman speaking out about these things, be it suicidal ideations or rape. Their sincerity, their genuineness, gets questioned, we’ve all seen it happen recently, when women spoke out during MeToo. Who made these people equipped to speak out about someone else’s issues? Hint: No one. Also, it doesn’t even make sense. Why would she do it for attention? I call bullshit.
Then there are people who are upset, calling on privilege, saying what the hell does she have to be sad about? Why would she — a woman, yes — but a woman of high status and privilege, want to kill herself? Meghan brings up a lot of different aspects throughout the interview, that contributed to her feeling like she wanted to end her life, ranging from feeling like things would be easier if she wasn’t around to worrying about racism and how it would affect her son. Regardless of what lead her to feel those feelings though, mental health does not discriminate. It doesn’t care if you’re rich, if you’re famous or whatever it might be. It can happen to anyone, besides, famous and rich peoples are humans with feelings too.
A Swedish journalist, Lena Mellin, wrote an article that was published in one of our biggest newspapers. Everything about it was huge disappointment, not only that she thought it and wrote it, but that it was ultimately published. It’s now a locked article unfortunately but she states that mental health shouldn’t be taken lightly, which is about the only thing I can agree with her on. Because she then goes onto say that:
…when Prince Harry’s wife express that life at Buckingham Palace was so hard that she wanted to take her life, you wonder what’s true and what’s not. My reflection is that there are billions of people out there who have bigger reasons to look at life that darkly than Meghan Markle.
This encapsulate everything that’s wrong with this whole debacle, when others suddenly become the judges of what someone else is feeling, about something that’s so incredibly private, it makes me sick. Also, another gaslighting aspect, when she doesn’t even refer to Meghan by name, but refers to her as “Prince Harry’s wife”. This kind of whataboutism stance that she has really pisses me off! Why diminish her struggle like that? Just because someone else in the world has it worse than Meghan, doesn’t change the way that she feels. Talking about and validating someone’s mental health does not mean you diminish or take away from someone else’s. Just because you seemingly seem to have a picture perfect life, doesn’t mean you can’t feel absolutely broken.
There’s this text that goes around on social media right now, it reads: Meghan Markle probably won’t see your comments accusing her of “attention seeking”. But your loved ones will. So think about that for a second, if you post comments that you think someone who speaks out about wanting to commit suicide is lying about it (seeking attention) or if you write that they don’t have a valid reason for it; it will endanger someone close to you who might be ashamed that they’re feeling the same way. Yes, statistically you’ve got someone close to you who’s struggling with this right now.
If I’m being honest, I’ve struggled with suicidal thoughts during difficult periods in my life. People probably could’ve said that I had no reason for feeling the way I did. I was privileged in a lot of ways. Does it really matter if I had a valid, or rather, a socially accepted reason behind it? No. There’s a saying: you never know what someone is going through. Be Kind. Always. And this is something that I feel like everyone should bear in mind.
Finally, I think it sounds like Meghan and Harry tried to set boundaries with Harry’s family and when they didn’t accept those, what were they supposed to do? You can’t force someone to change. What they did is historical and I absolutely think they made the right choice. Meghan, to me, you’re a queen for speaking out, fighting for your mental health and your family.
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