Meghan and Prince Harry took part in the popular Teenager Therapy podcast to mark World Mental Health Day. During a chat with three of the podcast’s teenage hosts, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex discussed how they work on their mental wellbeing and deal with online negativity.
But they also opened up on a bizarre talent Prince Harry has mastered – which delights Archie.
Meghan was interrupted by a noise outside her home while discussing how COVID-19 has made parents’ lives even busier and more complicated.
Speaking to the person recording the chat, the Duchess asked: “Victor, do you want me to hold for that sound?”
Joking, hosts and guests decided the background noise “added to it”.
Prince Harry then added: “I can make bird noises if you want.”
Amid laughter, Meghan could be heard saying “he loves birds”.
She later added: “And Archie loves birds”.
Archie was born at a London hospital on May 6 and lived for the first five months of his life at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.
READ MORE: Prince Harry reveals he meditates to help deal with online negativity
The little Sussex travelled with his parents to British Columbia for their six-week break over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
He did not travel back to the UK with Meghan and Harry in January and March and moved to California with his parents days before they officially stepped down as senior royals.
Meghan and Harry recorded this podcast episode, titled ‘A Conversation with Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ at their home in Santa Barbara.
Sitting on a white couch opposite to their interviewers, Meghan, Harry and the teenagers were photographed wearing face coverings throughout the episode.
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Despite featuring a few lighthearted moments, Meghan and Harry’s chat also touched upon serious topics, including the toll online hate can have on mental health.
The Duchess detailed the “almost unsurvivable” experience of being among the most trolled people in 2019.
She said: “Not just for a younger age range but for everyone, especially for your point during COVID, if you are not in school then you are finding yourself on your devices or online more, right?
“And there is a lot of vulnerability there that I think so many people are experiencing.
“Yes, it’s a great way to connect but it also ends up being a place where there is a lot of disconnection.”
Opening up on her own experience, she added: “I can speak personally too, I am 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 with the baby.
“But what was able to be manufactured and churned out it’s almost unsurvivable, it’s so big you can’t even think what that feels like.
“I don’t care if you are 15 or 25 if people are saying things about you that aren’t true, what that does to your mental and emotional health it’s so damaging.
“So from my standpoint and for the work that we do is that from my personal experience and be able to talk to people and understand that even though our experience is unique to us and obviously can seem very different from what people can experience from day to day, it’s still a human experience and that’s universal.
“We all know what it feels like to have our feelings hurt, we all know what it feels like to be isolated, and I think that’s why the work you guys are doing here it’s so important.”
Harry said he has chosen not to follow online hate but to just “remove himself from that”.
Comparing what is being consumed online with healthy and unhealthy food choices, the Duke said: “I think it’s very easy to be sucked in and consumed by negativity, but we all have the choice to be able to cut that out of our lives.
“Hate following has become a thing, you don’t need to do that.
“Just as much as we worry about, be concerned, and take notice of what we put in our bellies as a diet, the same applies for our eyes and our mind, what we’re consuming is affecting us.
“For me, I made the choice not to read it, not to see it, and to remove myself from that, and to very much focus on the uplifting and the hopeful side.”
