Why Prince Harry Thinks Term 'Megxit' Is Offensive Toward Wife Meghan Markle

Prince Harry is speaking out against misinformation in the media and how it has harmed his family.

The Duke of Sussex joined Wired magazine's Re:Wired virtual summit in New York City Tuesday, taking part in the "Internet Lie Machine" panel discussion alongside Renée DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory and Rashad Robinson of Color of Change.

During his talk, Prince Harry addressed the media's use of the term "Megxit" to describe the couple's mutual decision to step back from their roles as senior working members of the royal family last year.

"Maybe people know this and maybe they don’t, but the term Megxit was or is a misogynistic term, and it was created by a troll, amplified by royal correspondents, and it grew and grew and grew into mainstream media," Prince Harry said, according to Vanity Fair. "But it began with a troll."

The duke pointed out that the harm that comes from misinformation being spread online affects people beyond social media.

Prince Harry also spoke about his history with the media and misinformation, noting that he learned from an early age that "the incentives of publishing are not aligned with the incentives of 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," he added.

Later in the panel discussion, Prince Harry cited a recent Bot Sentinel study, first reported by BuzzFeed News, that examined how he and his wife were targets of a coordinated social media campaign. The independent report found that over 70% of the hate speech about Markle can be traced back to fewer than 50 accounts, he noted.

Prince Harry also said that the "most disturbing" part for him was the number of British journalists who have been interacting with these accounts and amplifying the "lies," which he claimed they "regurgitate ... as truth."

Prince Harry was invited to the panel due to his role on the Aspen Institute's Commission on Information Disorder, which conducted a six-month study exploring misinformation in the U.S.

The duke shared what he learned from the Aspen commission in the last six months — that people were led to believe that the problems online were too big to solve, which Prince Harry said was not true. He likened people spreading misinformation to superspreaders of a virus because they are only small in numbers but could create a huge amount of chaos online.

The prince went on to reiterate that he and Markle won't return to social media "until things change."

"The internet has been defined by hate, division, and lies, and that can't be right," Prince Harry continued. "For anyone who has children, we’re allowing the future to be defined by the here and now, and that’s profit and that’s greed."

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex still have millions of followers on Instagram, but they stopped using the account after quitting royal duties and never created an official Twitter page. In their last post on Instagram in March 2020, the couple thanked their fans for their support, inspiration and shared commitment to do good in the world.