Prince Harry Reportedly Reads Online Comments and Cares What People Say About Him and Meghan Markle
Many people are often curious to know what has been said about them. Public figures are talked about day in and day out, but they are usually advised to not go down the rabbit hole of online comments, which is known to be filled with unfiltered, unsightly messages. However, according to some sources, it seems Prince Harry might spend more time than most fans think on reading articles and comments about him.
Prince Harry reportedly reads about him and Meghan Markle
Ever since Harry married Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in 2018, the couple has become one of the most popular topics on the internet. News outlets often spend time discussing their every move while internet commenters make speculations about their lives.
According to a new biography about the Sussexes, Finding Freedom, Harry spends a lot of time reading up on what has been written about him and his wife.
“Scrolling on his iPhone, he sometimes couldn’t stop himself from reading the comments on the articles,” said the authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, in an excerpt published by The Times in late July. “’H&M disgust me.’ ‘They are a disgrace to the royal family.’ ‘The world would be a better place without Harry and Meghan in it.’ The last comment had over 3,500 upvotes.”
Scobie and Durand continued, “Harry regretted opening the link. His stomach tied into the same knot every time he saw these sorts of comments.”
Prince Harry ‘worries about what people think of him,’ expert says
Town & Country Magazine reported that there have also been other accounts of Harry’s alleged tendency to read about himself on the internet. According to one expert, this could signify that the prince has some worries about how others perceive him.
Earlier this year, royal reporter Rebecca English told the Daily Mail about an encounter with Harry in Lesotho in 2006. While English was writing about his charity Sentebale on her laptop, Harry peeked over her shoulders.
“Just wanted to see what you were saying about me,” he reportedly said. “I always want to know what people are saying about me.”
Meanwhile, Harry’s biographer, Duncan Larcombe, once shared in an interview with Cosmopolitan, “I was always surprised at just how religiously he reads stuff that’s written about him. I think Prince Charles hasn’t read a newspaper in years but Harry, and to some extent William, they almost read everything that’s written. It’s a sign that probably deep down he is worried about what people think of him.”
Prince Harry is calling for a better social media environment
Harry’s time spent on the internet seems to have opened his eyes about how social media can affect people. On August 6, he penned a piece on Fast Company that called for a change to the current social media environment.
Harry revealed he and Meghan have been talking to various leaders in business and marketing about ways to “remodel the architecture of our online community in a way defined more by compassion than hate; by truth instead of misinformation; by equity and inclusiveness instead of injustice and fearmongering; by free, rather than weaponised, speech.”
He also compared the impact of social media on young, developing brains to the effects of lead on children in the 1970s.
“We knew something was harmful to the health of our children, so we made the necessary changes to keep them safe, healthy, and well,” Harry wrote. “Researchers I’ve spoken with are studying how social media affects people — particularly young people — and I believe the book of data that we will look back on one day will be incredibly troubling.”
Harry ended his piece with the belief that people can create a “movement” towards a better social media environment. He wrote, “We can—and must—encourage these platforms to redesign themselves in a more responsible and compassionate way. The world will feel it, and we will all benefit from it.”
