Though Prince Harry is widely unpopular after his decision to leave the Royal Family in 2020 – a move many saw as a betrayal – it wasn’t always that way.
Prior to the well-publicised fallout, his laidback and jokey nature was seen as fun-loving and genuine – worlds apart from his family’s stiff reputation.
In November 2018, the cheeky Prince managed to beat every other royal, including the beloved Queen, to finish first place in a national poll of the public’s favourite royal.
Although he was the ‘Spare’ and sixth in line to the throne at the time, Britons clearly had a soft spot for Harry.
This was despite his series of missteps over the years, from his choice to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005, to the unwise decision to get photographed playing ‘strip billiards’ with women while in Las Vegas in 2012.
But the public seemed to be understanding, with each mistake somehow making him more “normal” in a family defined by its mystique.
The goodwill continued when he married American actress Meghan Markle, with the pairing considered the best weapon against rising republicanism in Britain’s youth.
However, the couple’s charmed existence with the public seemed to change when they announced their decision to leave the Royal Family in January 2020.
Since then, their popularity has decreased as they carried out bombshell interviews and released their Netflix ‘docuseries’ and tell-all memoir.
Here MailOnline’s graphic shows the timeline of where everything went wrong for Harry and Meghan.
May 6, 2019 – Birth of Archie and secrecy row
When Prince Harry and Meghan’s first child Archie was born in May 2019, they were both still very popular with the British public.
But their secretive behaviour in the immediate aftermath raised eyebrows amongst a public who had been used to more openness from the Royal Family.
The couple chose to dismiss the conventional public photo call after the birth, instead sharing more private first photos of Archie, captured at Windsor Castle a few days after his birth.
When Prince Harry and Meghan’s first child Archie was born in May 2019, they were both still very popular with the British public
They also broke tradition by choosing not to reveal the identities of Archie’s godparents, or the names of the consultants and the hospital.
The pair also chose not to make the birth certificate public to keep these details out of the public domain for even longer, instead only submitting it to the local registrar.
Despite their unusual royal behaviour, it looks like it had little impact on the public’s opinion of them.
October 18, 2019 – Meghan’s South Africa interview where she said people weren’t asking if she was okay
After marrying Harry in May 2018, Meghan seemed to be getting enthusiastically stuck into the life of a working member of the Royal Family.
But the first major sign that she was struggling to cope was the famous 2019 interview by ITV in South Africa, where Meghan opened up about her wellbeing.
Despite the emotional nature of Meghan’s South Africa interview her complaining was seen as out of touch
When prompted she said: ‘Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m okay… But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.’
Despite the emotional nature of the comments, the complaining was seen as out of touch and drew criticism.
Nevertheless, the interview, which made headlines around the world, seemed to have little effect on couple’s popularity.
January 8, 2020 – Megxit officially announced
Harry and Meghan’s decision to unceremoniously leave the Royal Family in 2020 was almost unprecedented in history.
They issued an unexpected statement on their Instagram page announcing their decision – which was seen by a large section of the public as ‘blindsiding’ the Queen.
The monarch summoned Harry, Prince Charles and Prince William to her estate in Sandringham where a deal was made for the couple to depart royal life.
Harry and Meghan’s unexpected statement announcing their decision to leave the Royal Family was seen by a large section of the public as ‘blindsiding’ the Queen
Dubbed ‘Megxit’ by the press, it would mean giving up their royal titles, repaying the £2.4 million spent to refurbish their Windsor home and no more money from the state-funded sovereign grant.
But the methods used by the couple to get their way, and the rift it revealed at the heart of the family, seemed to spell disaster for Harry and Meghan’s reputations.
The polling data shows that it caused both of them to take the biggest hit in popularity since polling on the subject began – and it has never recovered.
March 7, 2021 – Bombshell Oprah interview and ‘racism’ claims
Some 13 million people in Britain watched as, on March 7, 2021, the duo took part in an 85-minute tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Chatting in the sun-kissed garden of a Californian mansion, a heavily pregnant Meghan described her time in the Royal Family as a nightmare that she’d barely survived.
She described how she had been ‘silenced’, with her mental health getting so bad that she’d contemplated suicide.
Harry and Meghan’s reputations took a hit after they spilled family drama on a talk show with Oprah in March 2021
Meghan also suggested that the Royal Family was collectively racist, pointing the finger at one unnamed member who, they alleged, had speculated about the colour of their son Archie’s skin while Meghan was pregnant.
The couple’s decision to attack their family on national television, especially since the royal mantra of ‘never complain, never explain’ meant they couldn’t respond.
Critics also didn’t take well to Meghan’s decision to go on national television and attack the family she married into, especially when she was already estranged from most of her own.
Following the interview, both of their reputations took a hit, with negative perceptions rising significantly in the aftermath.
June 4, 2021 – Birth of Lilibet and controversy over her name
Although the birth of a new child is usually something to be celebrated, Harry and Meghan’s child Lilibet caused a swirl of controversy when she was born.
The 7lbs 11oz baby – whose middle name is Diana – was given the same first name that the Queen was called by close family.
‘Lilibet’ was coined by the late monarch when she was too young to pronounce her own name.
Royal experts at the time believed the Queen would be ‘desperately unhappy’ that Harry and Meghan used her ‘very private’ and ‘special’ nickname.
Royal experts at the time believed the Queen was ‘desperately unhappy’ that Harry and Meghan used her ‘very private’ and ‘special’ nickname Lilibet
Piers Morgan weighed in and said the choice of name was ‘ironic’ given the couple had spent weeks ‘trashing the Royal Family and the monarchy’.
Unlike with their son Archie, the couple did not release a photo of their daughter after her birth.
Buckingham Palace also appeared to be caught off guard by the timing of the Sussexes’ announcement with a spokesman for the Palace congratulating the couple 90 minutes after the news broke.
However, despite the controversy around the name and the surprise to the Palace, the data shows it seemed to have had a negligible effect on their reputations.
September 25, 2021 – Meghan visits a school for underprivileged children wearing £5,575 outfit
As they continued to settle into their lives in California, Harry and Meghan began to appear in the British press less often than when they were working royals.
But in September 2021 they made headlines after Meghan ditched her usually laid-back fashion style on a visit to a school for underprivileged children in New York.
When she visited Harlem’s PS 123 Mahalia Jackson School, she wore a £5,575 outfit, comprising a £3,850 Loro Piana loose-fitting burgundy cashmere coat with matching £1,300 trousers, and £425 Manolo Blahnik red stilettos.
In September 2021, Meghan raised eyebrows after she wore a £5,575 outfit during a visit to a school for underprivileged children
The decision raised eyebrows after public records showed that 94 per cent of the children at the school qualified for free meals.
However, despite bad headlines over the choice of outfit, it didn’t seem to have an impact on their popularity.
It looks like at this stage, most of the British public had made their minds up about Meghan, with 65 per cent of people viewing her negatively – the same rate as the present day.
May 27, 2022 – Meghan criticised using the scene of a school shooting in Texas as a ‘public relations’ exercise
Meghan once again got bad headlines after her visit in May 2022 to the parents of victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was seen by some as a public relations exercise.
She went to the scene two days after the massacre which killed 21, including 19 children.
She was pictured laying a bouquet of white roses at a makeshift memorial, but her spokesperson insisted she was attending in a personal capacity as a mother.
Meghan was criticised for using her well-documented May 2022 visit to the parents of victims of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas
The appearance drew criticism as some members of the public felt it was an attempt by the Duchess to take centre stage after an unimaginable tragedy.
Jill Kargman, the author and star of US TV show Odd Mom Out, was critical at the time, saying: ‘This rings hollow and feels opportunistic. I thought she stepped down for privacy?
‘Using dead kids for a photo op isn’t drawing attention to the tragedy, it’s drawing attention to her obvious quest to be our People’s Princess. No thanks.’
Meghan’s close aide Mandana Dayani later cited the episode as an example of the Duchess’s kindness ‘happening behind closed doors’.
September 8, 2022 – Death of the Queen
Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death on September 8, 2022, Britain was plunged into mourning for the beloved monarch.
Members of the Royal Family, including Harry and Meghan, flocked to London for the poignant funeral.
The public were clearly heartbroken at her death, with around 250,000 people queuing in the miles-long queue for hours to see her lying in state at Westminster Hall.
Polls revealed all of the Royal Family received a boost in the polls following the death of the Queen, including Harry and Meghan
But alongside the outpouring of emotion and gratitude for the Queen’s service to the nation, the public also began to value the Royal Family’s current members more, with polling showing the institution was more popular in the aftermath of her death.
This includes Harry and Meghan, with opinions softening on them for a brief time, although Harry had a bigger rise in the apparently sympathy-driven positivity following the death of his grandmother.
It is perhaps the only time when the public’s opinion of the couple actually improved significantly, breaking the trend of growing negativity since Megxit.
December 8, 2022 – Harry and Meghan’s Netflix show
Despite them both noticing a rise in popularity following the Queen’s death, things would get worse for Harry and Meghan only a few months later.
In December, they released their hotly anticipated Netflix ‘docuseries’ where they were critical of both the Royal Family as an institution and its members.
The most damaging claims included that Harry was ‘literally brought up’ by a ‘second family’ in Africa and there was a ‘huge level of unconscious bias’ in the family,
Harry also insisted that he chose his wife with his ‘heart’ – unlike his male relatives.
The most viral moment in the Netflix show was when a giggling Meghan recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen by performing a deeply exaggerated curtsy in front of an awkward looking Prince Harry
But the most viral moment was when a giggling Meghan recounted the ‘surreal’ moment she first met the Queen by performing a deeply exaggerated curtsy in front of an awkward-looking Prince Harry.
Despite it pulling in the ratings – becoming Netflix’s second highest ranked documentary ever – it had a very negative effect on the public’s perception of them.
Up until that point, Meghan and Harry had often sniped at the press for portraying them negatively, but it appears that even when they had completely controlled the message, the public did not like what they heard.
The show was widely panned by viewers and critics due to its relentless ‘woe is me’ tone, only scoring 5.1/10 on IMDb.
January 10, 2023 – The publication of the tell-all memoir Spare
Despite their popularity already being low, when Harry released Spare, his would drop yet further to its lowest ever level.
Although it had become the fastest selling non-fiction book after 750,000 copies sold in the UK in its first week, not all of those readers came away with a positive impression of the Prince.
Despite their popularity already being low, when Harry released Spare, his would drop yet further to its lowest ever level
It made a series of dramatic revelations about the Royal Family, including intimate details about their lives, despite the couple having been longtime campaigners for ‘privacy’ in the past.
A large section of the public seemed to come away from the more than 400-page read with an opinion of the royal as vengeful, spoiled and selfish.
However, the royal psychodrama he revealed seemed to damage everyone in the family, with polls showing that the reputations of all members of the family took a hit following its publication.
February 15, 2023 – South Park ridicules them with ‘The Worldwide Privacy Tour’ episode
On February 15, 2023, the royal couple’s reputation took another hit when they starred in their very own episode of the acclaimed animated sitcom South Park.
The episode, titled The Worldwide Privacy Tour, referred to the couple’s plea for privacy – just after Harry had finished his press tour for his tell-all memoir Spare and a few months after their revealing Netflix show was aired.
It poked fun at the couple’s grievances and behaviour, with Meghan cuttingly being introduced by one character as a ‘sorority girl, actress, influencer, victim’.
On February 15, 2023, the royal couple’s reputation took another hit when they starred in their very own episode of South Park where they were ridiculed over their alleged pleas for privacy
The 22-minute episode was watched by millions, making global headlines for mercilessly mocking and ridiculing the couple.
But despite its jokey nature, the show did further damage to the couple’s reputation in the UK, with the data appearing to show another drop.
It also did damage to their image amongst the US public, despite their reputation there always being more positive than in the UK.
A poll carried out a few days after the show by US website Newsweek, showed that the prince’s popularity in America had dropped three per cent since the previous month – while Meghan’s fell by four per cent.
July 12, 2024 – Accepting the Pat Tillman Award despite veteran outrage
One of the most recent events that caused controversy for Harry and Meghan was the decision to accept the Pat Tillman Award.
The Pat Tillman Award is named after the iconic NFL player and late US Army Ranger who gave up his lucrative sporting career to enlist in the army in the wake of 9/11. He died in Afghanistan in 2004 due to friendly fire.
Prince Harry accepted the prestigious military honour in July 2024, but it quickly drew criticism, not least from Mr Tillman’s mother, Mary Tillman, who said he was too ‘privileged’ and other soldiers were more deserving.
Meghan and Harry in Los Angeles where he accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service in July 2024
Harry faced calls to reject the award because it has typically gone to unsung veterans. More than 76,000 people signed a petition demanding the decision was reversed.
Mary Tillman told the Mail that she was ‘shocked’ it would go to ‘such a controversial and divisive figure’, adding: ‘There are recipients that are far more fitting. These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections or privilege that Prince Harry has.’
Nevertheless, the row seemed to have little impact on Harry and Meghan’s popularity with the public as a whole.
Who is still supportive of Harry and Meghan?
Over the past few years, the public has seemingly made up their minds about Harry and Meghan – with the vast majority coming down on the negative side.
But despite the slew of scandals and controversies, they still have a dedicated fan base in the UK which hovers at around 25 per cent.
According to one of the most recent YouGov polls, which tracks the popularity of the royals, Reform and Conservative voters are more likely to view them negatively, while Labour and Lib Dem are more likely to be positive.
Despite the slew of scandals and controversies over the years, Harry and Meghan still have a dedicated fan base in the UK which hovers at around 25 per cent
Harry and Meghan are now only above Prince Andrew when it comes to the least popular royal, according to a recent YouGov poll from September 2024
Another big difference in opinion on the couple comes from age, with younger people more supportive and older people more negative.
However both sexes, people of different social classes, and those from all over the UK have fairly similar opinions on them.
Despite their unpopularity, they are not the most disliked members of the family.
That dishonour belongs to Prince Andrew, who has a negative rating of 86 per cent and a positive view of only 5 per cent.
