Why Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s popularity plummeted in the UK

2020 was a year of the charts: Terrifying dizzying spikes on charts over COVID-19; Charts showing the wild swings of global stock markets; and almost minute-by-minute charts depicting the odds of Donald Trump and his bizarre all-round quiff in the White House.

It was no different for the royal family.

For years – even decades – the charts that record the popularity of the British monarchy and its various star players have barely shaken. The Queen was loved, Harry adored, William managed to generate a reasonable level of respect, and there was benevolent tolerance for Prince Charles, plant interlocutor and one-time tampon lover. Much has never changed.

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Like so many other things, the turmoil and destruction of this year have had a retrospectively charming sadness. On the same day after Harry and Meghan Duke and Duchess of Sussex spectacularly announced on January 8th that they were stepping down as senior high-ranking members of the royal family, British polls regularly asked the British for their views on the situation.

On Thursday, YouGov, the country’s market research firm, released the latest figures on how various HRHs are viewed by the Hoi Polloi. If your last name happens to be Sussex, look the other way now.

The news for Harry and Meghan has been positive and extremely brutal.

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For Harry, 48 percent of adults have a positive impression of the former prince and 47 percent have a negative opinion, resulting in a net score of 1 and a decrease of 19 points compared to March this year.

Meghan, rated positive by 33 percent of adults in the UK and negative by 59 percent, creates a net favorite of -26. That’s the second lowest score in the entire Windsor House.

In fact, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, the woman who publicly referred to Diana, Princess of Wales as “the Rottweilers” and who for decades was the most hated woman in Britain, is more popular than Meghan today.

Autsch.

And what about Harry, the ginger-haired charmer, whose Jappery and Diana-esque public figure regularly saw him rank first or second in terms of royal popularity? The prince who was once the golden child of the royal family, the apple of the eye of a possessed nation? He is now connected to his stepmother, Camilla.

Double Outsch.

For the Sussexes, hailed worldwide as the megawatt superstar saviors of the royal family just two years ago, this poll marks a spectacular decline in the grace and affection of the British public.

It might be easy to ignore these numbers: who cares what a bunch of whiny, angry Brits think of Harry and Meghan when they choose to build their future in sunny California instead of rainy Windsor?

But there’s a bigger, far more complicated picture here, the gist of which is the fact that Harry and Meghan’s futures are still tied to the UK to some extent.

For starters, both have returned to North America since March this year and not yet returned to the UK. At some point, however, they have to start their return journey across the pond.

While COVID certainly helped keep her thousands of miles away from his extended family, some sadly inevitable events in the years to come will require you to spend much more time in the UK: Prince Philip’s death, the Queen’s death, the Rise of Prince Charles to the throne and Williams investiture as Prince of Wales.

These will all be historic moments for the House of Windsor and it would be unthinkable for Harry, as sixth on the throne, not to attend.

That said, they may have spent much of this year not voting for Fleet Street and the censored palace courtiers, but this is just a passing condition.

The reception he and Meghan face when they land back in Blighty is likely to be a lot different from what they enjoyed 12 months ago.

Im Find freedomAuthors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the recently published sympathetic narrative of the Sussexes’ journey from newlyweds to palace refugees, claim that their sky-high favor was so great that some saw them as a threat to the royal status quo.

“Elderly courtiers … were concerned that the global interest and popularity of the Sussexes had to be curbed. In the short time since their fairytale wedding, Harry and Meghan have already taken the monarchy to new heights around the world. The Sussexes had made the monarchy more understandable for those who had never felt a connection before. ” freedom Reports. “However, there were concerns that the couple should be included in the group; Otherwise, the establishment feared that if left that way, her popularity could overshadow that of the royal family themselves. ”

Make no mistake, Harry and Meghan were clearly the superstars in the palace stables at the time.

But gosh, did this crown-jeopardizing celebrity score a spectacular hit after quitting?

Days after their bombshell was announced in January, 57 percent of Britons said they “did not sympathize” with the couples’ decision to step down at the same percentage, saying they believed the Sussexers had treated the Queen unfairly.

As the year progressed, the number of gloomy polls grew too.

After the Duke and Duchess asked Americans to vote in the US presidential election in August. Comments interpreted as tacit endorsement from Joe Biden said 49 percent of people polled in the UK said they did not think it was appropriate for members of the U.S. Presidential Authority to discuss political issues. In the same month, 48 percent of UK respondents said Harry and Meghan should be stripped of their titles, and only 27 percent of respondents said the couple should keep their titles.

(And following the couple’s announced $ 130 million Netflix deal, YouGov found that 64 percent of Britons were “not at all interested” in watching their content. Talk about voting on their remotes …)

It would certainly take the thickest skin to avoid being affected by these numbers. How will it feel for the couple who have spoken openly about their fight against press criticism to grapple with their diminished public standing on their return to London?

(Also take into account that the couples’ lawsuits against three UK newspapers and their stinging press reprimands last year are unlikely to mean they are waiting for a glowing media reception.)

For now, their return home shows all the signs that they are indeed rough.

Looking back on that year, Harry and Meghan spent most of it in a privileged bubble, initially in their $ 20 million borrowed Canadian mansion, a monstrosity of brick and bad taste. Next up was Tyler Perry’s faux-Tuscan Beverly Hills property. Finally, in July, it was confirmed that the duo had finally found their “forever home”, a simple combination of 16 bathrooms, a koi pond and separate wet and dry saunas. (Imagine having to get by with just one …)

While they may have stayed in close contact with the people and organizations that matter to them in the UK, their public focus this year was clearly on the US as they enthusiastically built their Stateside brand. In return, Americans have welcomed her with open arms, a nation excited to have their own real-life royal family happily settled in their midst. UNITED STATES!

This public devotion, however, is in direct contrast to the reception they may face when they get back on British soil.

It’s worth noting that later this year, when facing one damn poll after poll, Harry and Meghan have shown little or no inclination to try to return to the good graces of the British. There was no campaign to win Harry’s compatriots, curry favor, and remind the island nation why they loved the Sussexes so much in the beginning.

And that blind spot in the Duke and Duchess’ plan could be a gross misjudgment.

Whether or not they established a life on the West Coast they will always be tied to the UK, and their decision to focus primarily on working with US brands and platforms could very well bite them on their yoga derrières . They will have to spend a certain part of their lives in the UK – they paid back $ 4 million for their Windsor home, after all – and will not be able to escape the anger and upset their decisions which are reflected in their various polls Numbers.

Thankfully, there’s one member of the royal family who knows a thing or two about dealing with a fundamental wave of public animosity – Camilla. I’m sure she could have some pointers for Harry and Meghan; that and the secret of the perfect gin martini necessary to face an angry nation.

Daniela Else is a royal expert and writer with over 15 years experience working on a number of Australia’s leading media titles