Americans like Prince William more than Prince Harry – and the Princess of Wales more than Meghan Markle – because the Sussexes’ have chosen celebrity and self-martyrdom over royal duty, it was claimed today.
A recent YouGov poll in the US revealed Prince William enjoys a 63 per cent favourability rating among Americans – comfortably above Harry’s rating of 56 per cent.
The Princess of Wales has a 49 per cent rating in the US compared to the only American on the list, Meghan Markle, who has a 41 per cent rating.
Even worse for the Duchess of Sussex, 25 per cent of Americans view her unfavourably compared to six per cent for her British sister in law, best known as Kate Middleton across the Atlantic.
UK-US politics expert and policy maker Lee Cohen has said that the polls show that Americans prefer the ‘unshowy sense of duty’ of the Wales’ over the ‘self-promoting’ Sussexes.
He believes that Meghan and Harry have come to ‘personify grievance, vanity and betrayal’.
‘Even in a land that rejected monarchy, public sentiment favours hands down the Prince and Princess of Wales over the rogue runaways who swapped Buckingham for Beverly Hills’, he said.
Prince William (left) and Prince Harry (right) pictured together in July 2021
Kate, William, Harry and Meghan in Windsor in September 2022 after Queen Elizabeth II died. They were once close but are now estranged
Mr Cohen is a trade expert and senior Fellow of the London Centre for Policy Research who worked in Congress. Having worked in both countries he has also become a commentator for issues on both sides of the Atlantic.
Writing for The Spectator US, he said that Americans are tiring of Meghan and Harry, who is viewed negatively by one in five in the US – but is more popular than his wife.
‘In an age of cultural decay and institutional collapse, Americans crave continuity. We are drawn to symbols of permanence and poise’, he said.
‘William and Kate, with their unshowy sense of duty, offer exactly that. The Sussexes, by contrast, offer only the fleeting buzz of celebrity – and worse, a corrosive kind of self-martyrdom disguised as liberation.
Fame is not the same as honour. Accepting disingenuous awards, peddling lifestyle brands and monetizing private grievances may pay the bills, but it commands revulsion rather than respect. True nobility lies in service, not self-promotion’.
He said that the Sussexes, in ‘casting off’ royal duties, have also lost their ‘mystique’ and Americans are ‘running out of patience’.
‘William and Kate, by simply showing up, remind us of a forgotten truth: that dignity, loyalty and service are not relics of the past but virtues still worth aspiring to.
‘As Harry and Meghan sink into self-inflicted irrelevance, the Wales’ soar – not because they bully nor shout the loudest, but because they understand Queen Elizabeth’s example of the power of humble duty done well’.
The most popular royal overall is 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 late Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022, is in second place with a 73 per cent positive and 8 per cent negative ranking. William is in third overall and Harry fourth.
The Prince of Wales has a 63 per cent positivity rating in America and 10 per cent negative, which puts him in first place among living royals.
(From left) Sophie, Edward, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, Princess Anne, the Duke of Kent, King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William, Prince George, Kate, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte on the Buckingham Palace balcony in London yesterday for the VE Day 80 flypast
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Time100 Summit in New York City on April 23
Some 56 per cent of US adults have a positive view of the Duke of Sussex while 21 per cent a negative opinion, according to the YouGov study for The Times.
The Princess of Wales has a 49 per cent positive rating and 6 per cent negative
All the senior royals are more popular than Meghan, the only US citizen on the list, whose ratings are 41 per cent positive and 25 per cent negative.
The poll of 1,296 US adults was carried out between April 21 and 23, before Harry’s bombshell BBC interview in which he called for ‘reconciliation’ with his family.
Some 61 per cent have not changed their opinion on the couple since their move to the US, but 17 per cent said it was now worse and 10 per cent said it was now better.
Yesterday it emerged that Prince Harry sought advice from Princess Diana’s brother about changing his family name to Spencer.
Sources told the Mail on Sunday the Duke of Sussex actively explored ways to assume his mother’s surname – a move that would have involved ditching Mountbatten-Windsor, used by his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
It is understood he discussed the issue with Earl Spencer – whose family seat is Althorp in Northamptonshire – during a rare visit to Britain, but was told that the legal hurdles were insurmountable.
‘They had a very amicable conversation and Spencer advised him against taking such a step,’ said a friend of Harry.
Nevertheless, the fact that he consulted the Earl over the issue – a proposal that would dismay his brother and father – is a vivid expression of the toxic rift with his family.
Mountbatten-Windsor is the surname available to descendants of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It combines the Royal Family’s name of Windsor and the Duke of Edinburgh’s adopted surname.
On their birth certificates, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children are Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor.
Royal author Tom Bower has claimed that ‘Meghan decided her real object in life was to be Diana’. If the name change had succeeded, Meghan’s daughter, who is believed to have met the King only once, would have become Lilibet Diana Spencer, a more fulsome tribute to Harry’s late mother.
It is understood Prince Harry (right) discussed changing his family name with Earl Spencer (left)
A young Prince Harry with his mother Princess Diana during a visit to Majorca in 1987
Althorp House – the Spencer family seat in Northamptonshire
The move would be particularly hurtful to King Charles, who cherishes the Mountbatten name just as his father did.
A mentor to Prince Philip, the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma was also a strong influence on his great-nephew, the future King Charles.
Philip adopted the Mountbatten name when he became a naturalised British subject and renounced his Greek and Danish royal title in 1947. The Queen and Philip decided in 1960 that they would like their own direct descendants to be known as Mountbatten-Windsor.
According to the Government, you do not have to follow a legal process to start using a new name, but it suggests on its official website using a ‘deed poll’ to apply for or to change official documents such as a passport or driving licence.
Names and titles are a highly sensitive subject for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. They were given their Sussex titles by Queen Elizabeth on the day of their wedding in 2018.
Meghan recently insisted her surname is Sussex, correcting a guest on her Netflix cookery and lifestyle programme.
In episode two of With Love, Meghan, which was released in March, the 43-year-old former actress was joined by comedienne Mindy Kaling.
Meghan told her: ‘It’s so funny you keep saying ‘Meghan Markle’ – you know I’m Sussex now.’
