.It is better to simply ignore them and if they try to confront you about it you just tell them that is none of their business, in my experience this will irritate them to the extreme and will demonstrate to anyone who cares about watching this that they were just looking for a fight with you and then they will ignore anything they said about you.
The more you ignore them the more you would become vulnerable to their hate. It is better to find their weakness and then downgrade them infront of everyone. In today's time everyone has some kind of addiction. You can use that as a weapon to defend yourself rather ignoring them. No one is a saint in these times.
If we do that, maybe there will be a grudge against them later that they will have to avenge because we already attacked their weakness so they will think of another way to attack us again. It will never end because they and we will be involved in an unbroken circle and continue like that until one of them gives in. Letting them say anything about us is also doable and lets people judge who looks for faults or problems. And if the people around us really know who we are, they also won't mind people who talk like that because they won't believe it.
I don't think they will attack again as they would now know that I am not vulnerable anymore. They think twice before making another move, which will result in both parties ignoring each other. If you don't react then you will always face such situations in the future. No one cares if your sad but everyone envy you when you are happy. Ofcourse I am not talking about our family. I am referring to friends, colleagues & passerby.