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Prince Harry and Meghan should stay away from the Coronation and be stripped of their royal titles, the British public believes.
A OnePoll survey commissioned by the Daily Express has found that the Duke of Sussex has effectively lost the support of all age groups in the UK except the 18-24s after attacking his family in his newly published memoir, Spare.
The results will add to mounting pressure on the King to take action against his outspoken son and daughter-in-law, even though sources close to him have suggested he will want to try to reconcile privately with Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, in the run-up to the Coronation, despite their actions to widen the family rift.
OnePoll found 44 percent of the public do not want to see the Sussexes at the Coronation on May 6, while only 31 percent thought the couple should attend and the rest were undecided.
A senior royal aide said no decision had been taken yet about invitations. But Kristina Kyriacou, a former communictions secretary to the monarch, still believes Harry and Meghan will be asked to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey. “The King is not a vindictive man,” she told the Daily Express.
Public urges Prince Harry to ‘stay away from Charles’ coronation’ and be stripped of duties (Image: GETTY)
Harry has not spoken to his father or brother for some time and there have been claims that senior members of the Royal Family are worried that he will reveal their private conversations if he is invited to Britain to attend the Coronation.
But insiders have suggested that the King will want to avoid looking petty and will put the ball in Harry and Meghan’s court in spite of the risk of a public outcry and boos from the crowds for the couple.
More than half of those surveyed by OnePoll, 54 percent, thought that the Sussexes should be stripped of their titles, even though the King and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have made it clear that they do not support a change in the law to allow that to happen.
King Charles on first official visit in Scotland after Harry book release (Image: GETTY)
Some 37 percent think the dispute between Prince William and his brother Harry has gone so far that the brothers will never resolve it, while nine percent think it will be settled soon and a further 35 percent believe it will be eventually but not in the short term.
The poll shows that Harry and Meghan have suffered the most damage in the fallout after the fifth in line to the throne used his book to reveal behind-the-scenes rows inluding physical violence from William and to accuse the King, Queen Consort, and Prince and Princess of Wales of planting media stories and briefing against the couple to make the rest of the Royal Family look better.
Queen Camilla, who bore much of the brunt of Harry’s ire, has suffered a minor drop in support but the public actually think better of King Charles, William and Kate than before Spare was released despite Harry’s allegations, according to the results.
William and Kate opened the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Thursday (Image: GETTY)
Asked if they thought better or worse of each family member after the publication of Spare, the 2,030 UK respondents questioned on January 11 and 12 recorded a 10 percent improvement for Charles III, a five percent one for William, nine percent for Kate, and a marginal two percent drop for Camilla.
But Harry and Meghan saw a worsening of their reputations by 39 percent and 35 percent respectively when those whose views of the couple had improved were measured against those whose opinions of them had deteriorated.
Harry’s decision to write candidly about killing 25 Taliban in Afghanistan, describing them as “chess pieces removed from the board”, has provoked an outcry from many of his former military colleagues who have warned that it will make him an extra security risk at a time when he is going through the courts to try to win back police protection on his visits to Britain.
It also provoked a huge reaction from respondents in the OnePoll survey: 66 percent said he was wrong and only 13 percent thought he was right to discuss the Taliban he had killed.
Prince Harry’s highly anticipated and revealing memoir, Spare, launches on January 10, 2023. Available to pre-order now on Amazon, shop to read the gripping story of his life growing up in the royal household.
The poll supported other evidence from surveys that suggested that Harry and Meghan’s decision to wash the Royal Family’s dirty linen in public in a Netflix series and now this memoir has backfired on the couple.
Among the 18-24 age group, which has long been more sympathetic to the couple, 35 percent thought better of Harry for writing the memoir compared to only 20 percent who thought worse of him. But in every other age group Harry’s reputation had suffered more than it had improved and Meghan was in negative territory even in the youngest group.
Those same 18-24-year-olds also narrowly voted by 37 percent against 36 percent in favour of stripping Harry and Meghan of their titles.
Andy Williams, a political and reputation management consultant, said Harry had suffered a backlash from the public after condemning the monarchy, invading the privacy of his family and complaining about his lifestyle despite being incredibly wealthy and wanting to retain his royal status and privileges. “There is a massive contradiction at the heart of all his criticisms,” he said. “I do also think there is an elemement of him wanting to have his cake and eat it.”
Mr Williams, a director at PR company Penta, conceded that the monarchy had escaped serious damage from the controversy so far but suggested the crisis should spark a modernisation of the institution if it wanted to remain relevant to younger people, perhaps by stepping up campaigning on issues such as combatting climate change.
“It begs the question, what is the role of a modern monarchy?” he said, arguing that the King needed to establish what his reign will stands for now.
“It feels like there is another process of modernisation that needs to happen – 1997 with Diana’s death was obviously a watershed moment and I think the monarchy realised at that moment it needed to adapt or die. And I think this is another adapt or die moment.”
This poll shows that Harry and Meghan’s popularity is at an all-time low.
Despite a solid week of revelations from Harry’s book Spare, support for the King, William and Kate and the rest of the royal family remains high.
That was obvious on Thursday when Charles was out and about in Scotland and the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Merseyside.
The King got a warm welcome at the Aboyne Men’s Shed workshop, a 25-minute drive from Balmoral.
And as William and Kate opened the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, 81-year-old patient Sylvia Stanford gripped the Prince’s hand and told him affectionately: “Keep going, keep going, Scousers love you” to which he replied: “Yes, I will.”
It was confirmation, if needed, that the British public will rally round the monarchy and are sick and tired of the West Coast whingers.
The results show that if anything, the senior royals are MORE popular as a result of Harry’s onslaught.
Only the Queen consort has shown slightly more people thinking less of her than more, with most unchanged.
And all this has happened during a holiday period when they weren’t performing royal duties and have maintained a dignified silence in the face of the accusations.
As the New Year unfolds and they appear in public more often, I expect to see a surge of affection for them leading up to the Coronation.
A substantial percentage of people now think Harry and Meghan should be stripped of their royal titles and shouldn’t be at the ceremony in May.
They doubt William and Harry will ever make it up, and they think Harry was wrong to reveal he had killed 25 Taliban in Afghanistan.
It’s tragic to see what has happened to the Sussexes as there were such high hopes for them when they got married.
People blame them for leaving the royal family and clearly a large percentage don’t believe their story that they were driven out by his relatives, the press and the British people.
They would probably have more time for them if they had just admitted they wanted a new life in California, gave up their titles and concentrated on what suits them.
Other polls have showed similar results and the Palace will be relieved that the policy of “never complain, never explain” seems to be paying off.
Harry and Meghan will still have a hardcore of fans, many of them younger or from ethnic minorities, but they are dwindling in number, and they are losing ground even in the United States.
His comments about his time in the army have upset many members of the military, and it will be fascinating to see what reception he gets at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf in September.
Harry was always a hero to vets for his work with the Games, but many have spoken out to criticise his comments.
He and Meghan have made a lot of money and say they are happier than ever.
I just hope for their sakes they think it was worth it.
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