Meghan Markle’s popularity in Britain has hit a record low after her favourability rating dropped to just 20 per cent – meaning only Prince Andrew is more disliked than her.
YouGov, which carried out the poll last week, said the public perception of the Duchess of Sussex was now at its worst since it started tracking such data in 2017.
Some 65 per cent of UK adults have a negative view of Meghan – the same level as in the previous survey in February – but the positive view has slipped from 21 per cent.
Meghan is also far less popular than before she stepped down as a senior royal with husband Prince Harry five years ago, with 55 per cent seeing her favourably in 2019.
Views of the Duchess also differ significantly by age, with 38 per cent of 18 to 24- year-olds having a positive view compared to 8 per cent of those aged 65 or over.
As for Harry, only 27 per cent of UK adults now have a positive opinion of him and 63 per cent have a negative view, which is his worst score since early 2023.
Again, younger people feel more favourably towards the Duke of Sussex – who called for ‘reconciliation’ with his estranged family earlier this month – than older people.
It has been a busy few months for the Duchess who launched her Netflix show With Love, Meghan and lifestyle brand As Ever, appeared at a Time100 summit in New York and brought out six episodes of her new podcast Confessions Of A Female Founder.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Time100 Summit in New York City on April 23
The Netflix show received a string of critical reviews in March but became the tenth most-watched programme on the platform and will return for a second series.
Meanwhile Meghan’s jam and a collection of herbal teas, flower sprinkles and luxury honey were all snapped up by shoppers minutes after As Ever began taking orders.
As for the YouGov poll, Prince William and Kate top the list of favoured royals, with 75 per cent having a positive opinion of the heir to the throne and 72 per cent toward his wife.
For King Charles III, 61 per cent have a positive view of the monarch, compared to 29 per cent with an unfavourable view. The latter is a five point drop since February.
There are also generational divides on the monarch, with only 43 per cent of 18–24-year-olds having a positive opinion, compared to 77 per cent of the over-65s.
Princess Anne was in third place with 69 per cent having a favourable view, and also has the lowest negative rating of any Royal Family member at just 11 per cent. The King is fourth in popularity.
Meghan is second from last in the table – ahead of only the disgraced Andrew, who has a 5 per cent positivity rating and 85 per cent negative view.
The poll of 2,222 UK adults was carried out from May 6 to 7, which was after Harry’s bombshell interview to the BBC on May 2 following his Court of Appeal defeat.
The previous survey was conducted between February 20 and 21.
Harry said in his dramatic BBC interview that his ‘devastating’ loss in a case at the Court of Appeal, which rejected his bid to reinstate his round-the-clock police bodyguard in the UK, meant his family could never return to Britain.
He called for ‘reconciliation’ with his family and also claimed that Charles will not speak to him and he does not know ‘how much longer my father has’.
The Duke described his court defeat as a ‘good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up’.
But his decision to speak out appears to have worsened the chances of an end to his estrangement, amid suggestions the King and William will fear more than ever that any conversation with California-based Harry would end up in the public domain.
The rest of the Royal Family meanwhile put on a united front in London last week to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in London on Monday as they watched a procession and flypast, followed by a concert on Thursday.
Also last week, a separate YouGov study for The Times found some 56 per cent of US adults have a positive view of Harry while 21 per cent a negative opinion.
William meanwhile has a 63 per cent positivity rating in America and 10 per cent negative, which puts him in first place among living royals.
The most popular royal overall in the US was William and Harry’s late mother Princess Diana , who died in 1997, with a 79 per cent positive rating and 4 per cent negative.
The Duchess of Sussex’s new show ‘With Love, Meghan’ came out on Netflix on March 4
Meghan’s As Ever products including her jam launched last month and rapidly sold out
The Duchess of Sussex launched the eight-part ‘Confessions Of A Female Founder’ podcast
The late Queen Elizabeth II , who died in 2022, was in second place in America with a 73 per cent positive and 8 per cent negative ranking. William was in third overall and Harry fourth.
Harry, who moved to the US with Meghan in 2020 after stepping down as a senior royal, was more popular among Americans than his sister-in-law Kate.
The Princess of Wales has a 49 per cent positive rating and 6 per cent negative in the US, while the King’s ratings were 48 per cent positive and 27 per cent negative.
But William, Harry, Kate and Charles were all more popular than Meghan, the only US citizen on the list, whose ratings were 41 per cent positive and 25 per cent negative.
Even less popular than Meghan in America were Princess Anne (38 per cent positive; 6 per cent negative) and Prince Edward (38 per cent positive; 10 per cent negative).
Queen Camilla meanwhile was at joint-bottom in the table in the US with a 26 per cent positive and 33 per cent negative rating.
This was the same rating on both counts as Andrew, who stepped back from royal duties in 2019. They were also the only two royals on the US list with a net negative polling figure.
