Harry no longer considered ‘royal’, poll shows
The Duke of Sussex is no longer considered “royal” by a majority of the public, a poll has found.
The research by Ipsos found just 21 per cent of Britons think the Duke is more a member of the Royal family than a celebrity.
By contrast, 40 per cent of respondents said the Duke was more of a celebrity and 20 per cent said he was both a royal and a celebrity.
Out of a sample size of 1,091, 16 per cent said the Duke was neither a royal nor a celebrity, with the remainder saying they did not know.
It comes ahead of the latest iteration of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, the sports competition for wounded service members and veterans, which is taking place in Vancouver, Canada, this week.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left Britain for North America in 2020 when they quit as working members of the Royal family.
They have retained the dukedom but no longer use His and Her Royal Highness and the Duke no longer holds any military titles.
The couple, who live in Montecito, California, have rarely visited Britain since they left and have only met with other members of the Royal family on rare occasions.
The Duke has returned for private visits and for his legal battle with the publisher of The Sun, which he settled last month.
He is thought to have not seen his brother, the Prince of Wales, since the King’s coronation in May 2023, and before that when they met mourners together with their wives after the late Queen’s death in September 2022.
Prince Harry is also believed to have not met the King since February last year, soon after his father was diagnosed with cancer.
The poll also found that almost three times as many members of the public viewed the Duke negatively than the Prince of Wales.
Just 15 per cent had an unfavourable view of Prince William, compared to 43 per cent who were unfavourable towards Prince Harry. Over half of the respondents viewed Meghan unfavourably at 54 per cent, whereas just 12 per cent saw the Princess of Wales in the same way.
The poll also indicated two-thirds of the public believed the Prince of Wales would do a good job as King, with 67 per cent saying so. Just nine per cent think he would do a “bad job”.
The Prince of Wales is the most popular royal, with 64 per cent having a favourable opinion of him.
He was followed by the Princess of Wales on 62 per cent, the Princess Royal on 56 per cent and the King on 49 per cent. Just 33 per cent had a “favourable” view of Queen Camilla.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex no longer carry out royal engagements and, after resigning as working royals, signed a reported $100 million (£80 million) deal with Netflix to produce programmes.
They have produced four shows: Harry and Meghan, five-part documentary Polo, Heart of Invictus and the Duchess’s new cooking show, With Love, Meghan.
Bill Simmons, a Spotify executive, has previously described the couple as “grifters” after their rumoured $20 million (£16 million) deal with the audio company ended prematurely in 2023.
Last month, Vanity Fair claimed podcast staff needed “long-term therapy” or took extended breaks from work after working with the Duchess.
The magazine recounted a source alleging that the strain the Duchess of Sussex put on her colleagues when things went wrong was “really, really, really awful” and “very painful”.
The article also claimed the Duke underestimated the impact his tell-all memoir Spare would have on his family’s willingness to see him.
In the book, Prince Harry claimed that Prince of Wales knocked him to the floor in an argument, described Camilla as a “villain” and alleged that the King asked Harry and William to not make his “final years a misery” in a meeting after Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021.
