According to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, both misinformation and parental leave are “humanitarian” issues.
Prince Harry spoke at a virtual panel titled “Internet Lie Machine” on Tuesday, and addressed how the term for his and Meghan Markle’s decision to step down from their duties as senior royals, was “misogynistic.”
“The term ‘Megxit’ was or is a misogynistic term that was created by a troll, amplified by world correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew onto mainstream media,” he explained. “But it began with a troll.”
He noted that “misinformation is a global humanitarian crisis,” and one that he has felt personally for years.
“I’m now watching it happen globally affecting everyone, not just America, literally everyone around the world,” Harry continued. “I learned from a very early age that the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of the truth.”
The prince said that he lost his mother, Princess Diana, to the media’s “self-manufactured rabidness,” and is “determined” not to let the same thing happen to the mother of his children.
“The scale of misinformation now is terrifying,” he concluded. “No one’s safe from it, no one is protected from it. You can’t hide from it, and we continue to see lives ruined [and] families destroyed in one single household.”
Meanwhile, Markle has continued her crusade to push paid parental leave, after lobbying members of Congress with personal phone calls last week.
“I think this is one of those issues that is not red or blue,” she said at a different virtual summit the same day. “We can all agree that people need support certainly when they’ve just had a child.”
“To come back and now be a mother of two and to see that the U.S. is one of only six countries in the entire world that doesn’t offer any form of national paid leave just didn’t make sense,” she continued. “Paid leave, from my standpoint, is just a humanitarian issue.”
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