Meghan Markle is less popular in America than Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry, according to polling for Newsweek.
The Duchess of Sussex was liked by 43 percent of Americans and disliked by 20 percent of Americans, giving her a net approval rating of +23, in polling by Redfield & Wilton collected on December 5.
The figures show she is currently significantly more popular in America than Britain, where polling for YouGov in November showed she was liked by 28 percent and disliked by 60 percent, giving her net figures of -32.
However, she was less popular in America than her husband, Prince Harry, as well as Prince William and Kate Middleton.
How Meghan Markle's U.S. Popularity Compares to Royals
Kate Middleton was liked by 52 percent and disliked by 9 percent, giving her a net approval of +43, 20 points higher than Meghan's.
Prince William was liked by 51 percent of Americans and disliked by 11 percent of Americans, giving him a net approval rating of +40.
Prince Harry was liked by 52 percent of Americans and disliked by 14 percent, giving him a net approval of +38.
Meghan fared better than King Charles III, however, and significantly better than Camilla, the Queen Consort.
Charles was liked by 31 percent and disliked by 19 percent, putting him on +12, while Camilla was liked by 22 percent and disliked by 24 percent putting her on -2.
Redfield & Wilton surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults and the results carry a margin of error of about 2.5 percent. While William was marginally more popular than Harry, the difference was within that margin of error.
| Royal Family Member | Very favorable | Favorable | Neither favorable nor unfavorable | Unfavorable | Very unfavorable | Don't know |
| King Charles III | 11% | 20% | 37% | 12% | 7% | 13% |
| Queen Consort Camilla | 8% | 14% | 37% | 12% | 12% | 17% |
| Prince William | 19% | 32% | 28% | 6% | 5% | 10% |
| Kate Middleton | 20% | 32% | 29% | 5% | 4% | 10% |
| Prince Harry | 23% | 29% | 25% | 9% | 5% | 9% |
| Meghan Markle | 19% | 24% | 28% | 9% | 11% | 9% |
Significance of U.S. Attitudes to Harry and Meghan
Harry and Meghan both remained comfortably in positive numbers with the American public as they prepared to release the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, and with the prince's memoir, Spare, due to be published in January.
A significant section of American society also said they had a neither favorable nor unfavorable opinion of the couple—25 percent for Harry and 28 percent for Meghan.
The Sussexes will be encouraged by the fact they are significantly more popular in America than in Britain, where they have achieved pariah status across a much broader cross-section of society.
However, there are also some aspects of the data that might cause concern, including that Meghan was viewed very unfavorably by a greater percentage than all the other royals in the survey, apart from Camilla.
Eleven percent viewed Meghan very unfavorably, compared to 12 percent for Camilla, 7 percent for Charles, 5 percent for Harry and William and 4 percent for Kate.
How Meghan Markle's U.S. Popularity Compares to Britain
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's standing with the British public crashed when they quit royal life in January 2020 and again after their Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021.
In October 2019, Meghan was liked by about 55 percent of the British public and Prince Harry by 71 percent, according to YouGov data.
The figures are significant because they came toward the end of a year in which Meghan has said she was the most trolled person in the world. The 2019 data also came a year after a period in 2018 that the couple identified as a turning point when they described their experiences to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
Prince Harry said during their CBS tell-all that their October 2018 tour of Australia and the South Pacific marked a pivotal moment in relations with family, while Meghan said a story accusing her of making Kate cry, published in November 2018, marked a turning point with the mainstream media.
In other words, as previously reported by Newsweek, Meghan and Harry may have been at the center of a mainstream media and social media backlash at the time, but this did not appear to significantly change the percentage of Britons who viewed them positively.
Harry told his May 2021 Apple TV docuseries The Me You Can't See: "It went to a whole new depth with not just traditional media but also social media platforms as well. I felt completely helpless.
"I thought my family would help but every single ask, request, warning, whatever it is, got met with total silence or total neglect.
"We spent four years trying to make it work. We did everything that we possibly could to stay there and carry on doing the role and doing the job, but Meghan was struggling."
Meghan told the Teenager Therapy podcast in October 2020: "In 2019, I was the most trolled person in the entire world—male or female.
"Eight months of that, I wasn't even visible, I was on maternity leave with the baby but what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it's almost unsurvivable, it's so big you can't even think what that feels like."
The couple's comments reflect how it felt to experience that level of criticism, while the polling data perhaps shows that debate in the media and on social media doesn't always reflect the breadth of opinion in society.
Newsweek's poll suggests that both Meghan and Harry may in fact be liked by a smaller percentage of Americans now than the percentage of Britons who viewed them favorably in October 2019, the last YouGov poll before their decision to quit Britain to escape the storm of negativity towards them.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more
