It’s no surprise to anyone, the popularity of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has never been very high in the United Kingdom, and their departure in 2020 hasn’t helped matters. A recent poll by YouGov, which collects data from British voters, confirmed this fact by giving a ranking of popularity and notoriety of members of the royal family. According to the latter, the prince Harry
is in first position in terms of notoriety – because everyone who participated has already heard of him – but benefits from a 34% popularity only.
Pour Meghan Markle, the observation is almost identical. The Duchess of Sussex is at number 9e position in the ranking, with awareness at 94% and
popularity at 26%. In comparison, Prince William is recognized at 97% and has a popularity rating of 67% while his wife Kate Middleton is recognized at 95% and comes in at 71% in terms of popularity. It must be said that the recent announcement of her cancer obviously attracted a lot of sympathy from the public, who rightly sympathize with the painful ordeal she is going through.
photo credit: BESTIMAGE
Prince Harry and Meghan very unpopular with the British
However, such a classification has not nothing surprising in view of the events of recent years within the royal family. Prince Harry’s decision to leave his official duties and then the country, in order to protect your mental health and safetywas a real cataclysm within the Firm. The release of his memoirs shortly after did not help matters, with Prince Harry not hesitating to make revelations about what goes on behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace.
The other factor to take into account is the media treatment of Prince Harry and especially of
Meghan Markle. The British tabloids talk about the couple with mostly negative headlines, which obviously affects the perception that readers may have of them. Several studies demonstrate the biased by the British media
towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex who, whatever they do, will in all cases be criticized by this environment with close ties to the royal family.
Meghan Markle targeted by the tabloids
In 2020, the Guardian analyzed hundreds of British media articles talking about Meghan Markle to find that 43% of them were negative, 36% neutral and only 20% positive. In comparison, only 8% of articles about Kate Middleton were critical. For its part, the Brandwatch company, which examined 29,000 articles about Meghan Markle, pointed out that 72% of them were critical Prince Harry’s wife. Figures which clearly explain this ranking, and which justify the couple’s decision to go to the United States in order to protect themselves from such relentlessness.
