Prince Harry has slammed the term ‘Megxit’, claiming it is “misogynistic.”
The term was widely used last year following Harry and his wife Meghan Markle’s decision to step back from their roles as senior working members of the Royal family.
Speaking on the panel of Wired magazine’s virtual summit, the Duke of Sussex said the term came from a “troll.”
He said: “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. But it began with a troll.”
The 37-year-old also briefly spoke about his history with the media and misinformation, saying: “I felt it personally over the years, and I’m now watching it happen globally affecting everyone, not just America, literally everyone around the world.”
“I learned from a very early age that the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of the truth. I know the story all too well. I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness, and obviously I’m determined not to lose the mother to my children to the same thing.”
The father-of-two continued: “The scale of misinformation now is terrifying. 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 families destroyed in one single household.”
Later in the panel discussion, Harry cited an independent report that found “more than 70 percent of the hate speech about my wife on Twitter can be traced to fewer than 50 accounts.”
“And perhaps the most disturbing part of this was the number of British journalists who were interacting with them and amplifying the lies. But they regurgitate these lies as truth.”
He concluded his speech by saying: “Collectively as human beings we have the ability to make change in our media system. People, now more than ever, want and need truth, they want and need trust, and they want and need transparency.”
