Last Thursday was like much like any other day for the Duchess of Sussex. In the midst of a busy week, she was up early after a trip to the National Theatre on Wednesday, and spent the morning on a solo visit to another of her new charity patronages, the Association of Commonwealth Universities at King’s College London.

Dressed in a Givenchy all-black ensemble and nude high heels, the Duchess waved to deep, cheering crowds, held her ever-swelling baby bump, met the organisation’s executives and students, and learned about the transformational power of higher education. And then she left. It was, by all accounts, another successful engagement carried out by a well-liked, well-dressed, hard-working member of the Royal Family.

All accounts, that is, based in the real world.

“Like a black widow on the way to a funeral is #MeghanMarkle visiting the Association of Commonwealth Universities. #Prince Harry watch your back,” wrote the Twitter user ‘Fairetalesparklz’ soon afterwards, under a photograph of the Duchess smiling at the event. They added the hashtag #Megxit, a call sign to other trolls that unite behind their hatred of the Californian, and in came the rest. ‘Bella Wolf’, another user, replied. “With that uneven, kind of raggedy hem I would compare her to a witch. But widow is fine too. She definitely killed Harry’s spirit.” It went on. And on.

Over on Kensington Palace’s official Instagram page, which has more than 7 million followers, a similar image from the day had prompted ‘kelleywynn’ to write: “Some days she looks more white and others more black. Must decide which race she wants to play when she wakes up!” That came amid a fierce argument in the comments about whether the Duchess really had a university degree (she does, it’s on the record), whether the Duchess of Cambridge would have looked more or less elegant at the same event (give me strength), and a generally vicious spat between pro- and anti- Markle fans, both of whom frequently sounded unhinged.

Perhaps the blog sites would be a little more measured in their coverage, you might think. Alas, no. ‘SkippyIsHereToStay’, a Tumblr largely dedicated to following the Royal Family, posted suggesting the Duchess had deliberately placed the packet of Smints seen in her car door in one image as an advertising placement. It then asked, earnestly, whether there was the ‘fake’ bump. There are always posts about the bump.

It really was much like any other day.