LIZ JONES: I’m no Meghan fan, but this unrelenting online abuse has to stop

Like the vast majority of people in this country, I welcomed Meghan Markle into the Royal family. A huge fan of Harry, I wanted him to be happy. I wrote long think pieces about the ‘Markle Sparkle’ in the run up to their wedding in 2018. I stood up for her when others began to cover trivial issues such as reported spats with family and staff.

My best friend, an Emmy-nominated casting director in the film business, warned me that ‘actresses are mad. They are not genuine. It will all end in tears’. I refused to believe her.

I loved the fact Meghan rescues dogs. The sight of Guy — the beagle she adopted from a pet rescue centre in Canada — riding with the Queen in the back seat of a Range Rover, ahead of the wedding ceremony, brought tears to my eyes. Aw! At last, someone who doesn’t blast innocent birds to smithereens will join the Royal family!

I felt Meghan’s early initiatives, such as curating a cookbook to help victims of the Grenfell fire, were genuine and relevant. And I’ve written many, many pieces lauding her personal style: in 2019 Meghan’s crisp white shirt beat Kate’s more mumsy outfit at Wimbledon hands down.

Like the vast majority of people in this country, I welcomed Meghan Markle into the Royal family, writes LIZ JONES. Pictured, the couple in Kingston, Jamaica,this week

I felt Meghan’s early initiatives, such as curating a cookbook to help victims of the Grenfell fire, were genuine and relevant

And I’ve written many, many pieces lauding her personal style: in 2019 Meghan’s crisp white shirt beat Kate’s more mumsy outfit at Wimbledon hands down.

My enthusiasm began to wane, as it did for many people, when Meghan ill-advisedly whined she was ‘not okay’ in a TV interview later that same year. She was on tour in South Africa at the time, within a couple of hundred feet of the most deprived women and children on the planet. I finally washed my hands of her when she performed that extravagant curtsey in the Harry and Meghan 2023 Netflix series, seemingly mocking the Queen. And I felt enraged reading her fans’ demolition of Kate this past week, when she’s recuperating in hospital. The Princess of Wales is the epitome of class, duty and quiet strength, and no one should be attacked while they are unwell.

But, over the last few days, reading the foul online missives about Meghan in response to her and Harry’s trip to a film premiere in Jamaica, I am now convinced Meghan was telling the truth when she said she felt unable to go on.

I was initially sceptical when Meghan revealed to Oprah Winfrey a year after leaving Britain, that she had felt suicidal given her treatment in the UK.

Wasn’t she exaggerating a tad? Apeing Diana? On the night she supposedly told Harry she suffered from suicidal thoughts, didn’t she look radiant and happy by his side at the Albert Hall?

Hmmm. I have felt suicidal: you are unable to comb your hair, get off the sofa, let alone wear a ballgown to a bash.

But if Meghan is reading even a fraction of the online abuse aimed at her, I wonder how she is able to function at all. You might say, well, don’t read it, but these barbs have a way of finding their target, seeping under a door. Readers sometimes print out unkind comments about me and post them to my address.

Many might say, well, surely the opinions of a few online, anonymous nutters are water off a duck’s back? Ignore them. Move on. Sticks and stones and all that. But, believe me, even things you know are untrue, written online, over time will make you begin to doubt yourself. I’ve experienced death threats, only a fraction of the number aimed at Meghan. You feel sick, you shake.

I finally washed my hands of her when she performed that extravagant curtsey in the Harry and Meghan 2023 Netflix series, seemingly mocking the Queen

While Harry and Meghan were in Jamaica this week, the trolling reached a crescendo. Photos of the couple were enlarged, annotated on social media sites, supposed flaws circled, red arrows picking out areas of Meghan’s face. Her face is ‘long and horsey’. Her hands ‘belong to a 75-year-old witch’. The rest of the comments? Unprintable. They even discussed her two children. I refuse to give those opinions legs by repeating them here.

Yes, Meghan has made mistakes and not everyone likes her. But the level of abuse is unlike any I have come across online, even compared to the vitriol aimed at vivisectionists or paedophiles. The barrage is unrelenting.

And it could all end in tragedy. This could destroy her. Meghan was right to say she is not okay. The rise of the anonymous, entirely unfettered and unregulated troll is much more dangerous than any speeding paparazzi. It really has to stop.