A recent poll found that nearly two thirds of Britons dislike and hate Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
According to a survey done by the international opinion and data firm YouGov on Tuesday, 43% of the 2,627 British people asked said they didn’t care about Prince Harry and Markle, and another 22% said they didn’t care “very much.”
22% of those who answered said they felt “plenty” or at least “a good bit” of pity for the royal couple. Up to 13% of the people asked gave neutral answers.
A Newsweek article says that the survey came right after Markle’s podcast, Archetypes, her interview with The Cut, and the couple’s announcement of a trip to the UK and Germany in the first week of September.
Queen Elizabeth II is still the most popular person in Britain as a whole. After her are Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne.
After they said they would stop being working royals and move to the US, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s popularity in the UK, where Prince Harry is from, dropped by a lot. The problem only got worse after their honest talk with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 and the release of Harry’s memoir that same year.
According to a Newsweek article, the couple’s popularity was at an all-time low in May before they went to the UK for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. This was Markle’s first trip back to the country and public appearance there since she left the royal family.
In the May study, 65% of British people who took part said they didn’t like Meghan Markle, while 23% said they did. As many as 11% of respondents said, “I don’t know.” This gave her a net positive score of -42, which was her lowest score ever.
32% of Britons had a good opinion of the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry. This was not much better than the results for Prince William. When Harry and Markle got engaged in November 2017, he was much more popular than his grandmother, the Queen. His popularity was at 81%, which was much higher than the Queen’s.
But people in the US have been more positive about Markle and Prince Harry. According to a YouGov poll done in the United States in February, they were ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, on the list of the most liked British royals.
The Americans’ favourite royal is Princess Diana, who died in 1997. The Queen is second on the list. Kate and Prince William came in third and fourth, respectively.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Markle talked about her relationship with the Royal Family. She declared that “forgiveness is really important” and that until she doesn’t, she has “a lot to say.”
