Prince Harry’s UK popularity has dropped to 27% after his recent BBC interview about the King. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Harry’s UK popularity has dropped to 27% after his recent BBC interview about the King. Photo / Getty Images
The Duke of Sussex’s popularity in the UK has plunged after a BBC interview in which he claimed the King refused to speak to him.
A new YouGov poll revealed Prince Harry’s favourability rating had dropped to 27%, its lowest for more than two years.
The Duchess of Sussex has also seen her popularity drop to 20%, its lowest since YouGov began tracking it in 2017, the year before she married into the Royal family.
The Prince and Princess of Wales remain the UK’s favourite royals, with 75% of the 2222 adults surveyed reporting a positive opinion of Prince William, and 72% of his wife.
The latest survey was undertaken from May 6-7, days after the Duke gave a lengthy interview to the BBC following defeat in his legal battle with the Government over his security arrangements.
He insisted he wanted to reconcile with his family but admitted that his father would not speak to him and that he did not know how much longer the King had to live.
The Duke described the long-running legal battle, during which he argued that he had been singled out for “unjustified and inferior treatment” when he was denied the right to automatic police protection, as a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up”.
He claimed there was “a lot of control and ability” in his father’s hands, adding: “Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him. Not necessarily by intervening but by stepping aside, allowing the experts to do what is necessary.”
The Duke was once one of the most popular members of the Royal family, boasting an 80% approval rating in 2011. But public support fell away after he moved abroad in a blaze of acrimony.
Prince Harry once held an 80% approval rating in the UK back in 2011. Photo / Getty Images
The slew of revelations and allegations made about his family – from the March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview to the release of his memoir, Spare, in January 2023 – have seen his ratings plunge further. They reached their lowest, 24%, days after the memoir was published.
The Duchess’s highest approval rating of 55% came in October 2019, shortly after a tour of southern Africa, but, since then, her popularity has ebbed away.
Meanwhile, more than six in 10 Britons have a positive view of the King, representing a slight drop since February.
Whereas younger people tend to skew slightly more in favour of the Sussexes, older generations report a more favourable view of the King.
The Duke may take comfort from the fact he is more popular in the US, the country he now calls home, than the UK.
However, a YouGov poll published earlier this week found that he was less popular among Americans than his elder brother, Prince William.
Fifty-six per cent said they had a “very” or “fairly” positive view of Prince Harry and 21% a “fairly” or “very” negative opinion. Sixty-three per cent gave Prince William a positive rating and 10% a negative one.
Americans also reported a more favourable view of the Princess of Wales (49% positive) and the King (48% positive) than of the Duchess of Sussex (41% positive).
The royals with the worst image in America were the Queen and Prince Andrew, while by far the most popular royals in the United States remained the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and Elizabeth II.
