Harry and Meghan: Why Their Popularity Is Declining
In both the UK and the US, the public mood around Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has cooled. Recent polling shows their favorability slipping to some of the lowest levels since they left royal life, even as they remain highly visible on screens, stages, and social media.
At home in Britain, major surveys now find more people hold negative views of the couple than positive ones by a wide margin. In the United States, where they once enjoyed solid majorities in their favor, new data shows their ratings falling sharply over the course of 2025.
At the same time, commentators in Hollywood say the couple’s “star power” is fading five years after their move to California, as big-money media deals wobble and follow-counts on legacy accounts slide. One recent report, for example, highlighted a drop of around 1.6 million followers from their old Sussex Royal Instagram since the early post-Megxit peak.
This piece looks at what has changed, why their popularity is declining now, and what might happen next — for the couple, for the monarchy’s image, and for a media ecosystem that helped build them into global figures and then turned.
The story turns on whether Harry and Meghan can reinvent their public image faster than audiences lose patience with it.
Key Points
Recent UK polling shows Harry and Meghan viewed negatively by clear majorities, with Harry at roughly 30% positive and 58% negative, and Meghan at about 21% positive and 66% negative.
US surveys in 2025 suggest their approval has slipped from strong positive territory to much narrower margins, with Harry’s net rating dropping by more than ten points and Meghan’s falling sharply over the first half of the year.
Their media projects — from a canceled Spotify deal to mixed reactions around Netflix content and new lifestyle branding — have fed perceptions of overexposure and commercial overreach.
Commentators in Hollywood now openly describe the couple’s star power as fading, even as they pursue PR “reboots” and more joint appearances.
A long-running rift with the royal family, legal disputes over security in the UK, and a string of tell-all projects have turned them into polarising figures in the culture wars.
Generational and geographic splits are stark: younger people and many Americans remain more sympathetic, while older Britons are much more critical.
Background
When Harry and Meghan married in 2018, they were widely seen as symbols of a modernising monarchy: a popular prince with a track record in veterans’ causes and a biracial American actress with her own career and profile. Their wedding drew global audiences and, for a time, high ratings in both British and American polling.
The turning point came with their decision in early 2020 to step back as working royals and relocate, first to Canada and then to California. The move, quickly labeled “Megxit” in British coverage, meant giving up taxpayer-funded roles and forging an independent life built on commercial deals, philanthropy, and media production.
Over the next few years the couple worked with major streaming platforms, launched their Archewell foundation and media arms, and sat for high-profile interviews that alleged racism, institutional indifference to mental health, and toxic relationships with the press.
The Netflix docuseries “Harry & Meghan,” Harry’s memoir “Spare,” and a subsequent run of podcasts and specials drew huge attention but also marked a new phase: they were no longer just ex-royals, but active critics of the institution that had made them famous. Polling in both the UK and US began to register a slide after this wave of exposure, particularly around 2023.
By 2025 the couple were still visible — appearing at the Invictus Games, the TIME100 Summit, charity events in California and, most recently, a new Netflix holiday special fronted by Meghan — but public favorability in key markets was markedly lower than at the start of their post-royal chapter.
Analysis
Political and Geopolitical Dimensions
Harry and Meghan’s story has always been more than celebrity. It touches on race, empire, and the role of a hereditary monarchy in a diverse, post-imperial Britain. Their claims about unconscious bias and institutional failings inside the royal household were read very differently depending on politics and geography.
In Britain, where the monarchy remains part of the political constitution, criticism from within the family carries a different weight than in the US. Polls show that while younger Britons are more open to their arguments, older voters — who are also more likely to support the monarchy — have turned strongly against them.
In America, the couple initially enjoyed the status of underdogs and whistleblowers, fitting into a familiar narrative of speaking out against an old institution. But as time has passed, the focus has shifted from their grievances to how they use their platform. Polling now suggests that while they retain a base of supporters, especially among younger and more liberal Americans, overall favorability has drifted downward.
Their choices now have geopolitical echoes: every public intervention about the Commonwealth, colonial history, or British politics risks being interpreted not just as personal commentary, but as pressure on a key US ally’s institutions. That adds to the sense of fatigue among audiences who feel the story has become an ongoing cross-Atlantic argument rather than a clear mission.
Economic and Market Impact
The couple’s financial model depends on their ability to command attention. Their value to streamers, publishers, and brands hinges on whether viewers still click, listen, and show up.
Their earliest deals with major platforms reportedly ran into turbulence. A high-profile podcast partnership ended in 2023, with a senior executive publicly dismissing them in crude terms, reinforcing the perception that they had been over-sold to the market.
While their Netflix relationship has continued, with Meghan’s latest holiday special and earlier documentary projects, the critical and commercial buzz has been uneven. More recently, analysts note their presence in lifestyle ventures and on-screen cameos, but describe a broader fading of Hollywood “star power” compared with the frenzy of 2020–2021.
Digital signals point the same way. Reports of large follower losses on their dormant Sussex Royal Instagram account suggest that some users who once hoped for a royal return have simply moved on.
Taken together, these trends mean the couple may face tougher negotiations for future big-ticket deals. Their names still draw coverage, but the risk for studios and brands is that controversy now outweighs broad appeal.
Social and Cultural Fallout
Harry and Meghan’s supporters argue that they have been punished for telling hard truths and challenging a powerful institution. Their critics say they have over-shared, monetized their grievances, and failed to move on.
What is clear is that narrative fatigue has set in for many viewers. The arc from fairy-tale wedding to exile to endless revelation has been told, retold, and meme-ified. Polling data tracks a consistent pattern: spikes of attention followed by dips in favorability after each new wave of intimate disclosures.
Their public image is also shaped by the way they appear together. Joint appearances at charity concerts, summits, and sporting events often draw intense online scrutiny, from praise for their affection to criticism of their body language and style choices.
Inside their own operation, reports of staff turnover and PR “reboots” contribute to an impression — fair or not — that the brand is unstable. One commentator recently described a “mass exodus” of employees, while other coverage has framed changes as part of a planned reset toward a more focused communications strategy.
Technological and Security Implications
The couple’s story has played out in a digital environment that rewards outrage and division. They have spoken about online abuse and about the impact of social media on mental health, even as algorithms amplify every new clip, paparazzi shot, or offhand remark into a fresh round of tribal conflict.
Security has become part of the narrative. Harry’s legal battle over taxpayer-funded protection in the UK and his decision to travel with private security has fueled debate about the responsibilities and risks faced by “half-in, half-out” royals.
In that sense, their declining popularity is intertwined with a wider question: whether any high-profile figure can maintain broad goodwill once their life becomes a constant online referendum.
What Most Coverage Misses
Most commentary on Harry and Meghan’s declining popularity focuses on personality: who is to blame, who said what, who is resentful or calculating. That misses a structural point.
The role they have tried to create for themselves — part activist, part entrepreneur, part celebrity, part ex-royal — is inherently unstable. The monarchy rewards discretion and continuity. The attention economy rewards revelation and disruption. Moving from one system to the other almost guarantees conflict over tone, timing, and money.
Coverage also tends to treat “popularity” as a single score. In reality, the couple’s audience is fragmented. Some groups, particularly younger people and those who care deeply about racial justice and mental health stigma, still see them as important voices. Others feel their personal story has crowded out the wider issues they highlight.
Underneath the poll numbers is a simpler dynamic: plenty of people now feel they know Harry and Meghan very well — perhaps too well — and are asking what, beyond their own story, they are offering next.
Why This Matters
The couple’s trajectory matters for several reasons.
For the British monarchy, their decline in popularity is a warning about how quickly support can shift when internal disputes spill into public view. At a time when other senior royals enjoy relatively strong favorability, the Sussex story shows how fragile that support can be when questions of race, mental health, and media behavior are left unresolved.
For the entertainment and media industries, Harry and Meghan are a test case for “values-driven” celebrity brands. Platforms and publishers will watch closely to see whether star-led, confessional content retains pulling power over several years, or whether audiences move on once the initial revelations are spent.
For politics and culture, their story sits at the intersection of generational change, debates about institutional racism, and arguments over the limits of free expression when criticism targets national symbols.
In the short term, key things to watch include new polling in both the UK and US, the reception to Meghan’s ongoing lifestyle and Netflix projects, Harry’s work around the Invictus Games, and any public moves toward reconciliation with his family.
Real-World Impact
A middle-aged office worker in Manchester who once watched the royal wedding with enthusiasm now switches off whenever the couple appears on television, feeling the story has become repetitive and sour. Their shift from fans to skeptics is reflected in the national polling curves.
A young producer in Los Angeles weighing whether to pitch a new documentary concept involving the couple has to factor in not just name recognition, but whether viewers will see it as fresh — or as another round of familiar grievances.
A student in Toronto who has experienced racism in institutions still finds validation in Meghan’s earlier accounts and follows the couple’s work on mental health, but is increasingly frustrated that the coverage seems more focused on fashion and gossip than on systemic change.
A small charity director in London, grateful for past donations linked to the Invictus movement, worries that polarized views of Harry and Meghan could make sponsors more cautious about associating with anything that looks politically charged.
Conclusion
Harry and Meghan’s declining popularity is not the result of a single misstep. It is the cumulative effect of years of public conflict, commercial experimentation, and intense digital scrutiny layered on top of a centuries-old institution.
The core fork in the road is clear. One path has them doubling down on a familiar mix of memoir-style content and lifestyle branding, accepting that their audience will be narrower but intensely loyal. The other involves a quieter reset: fewer personal revelations, more steady work on causes that do not constantly circle back to their own story.
Over the next few years, the clearest signs of which path they are taking — and whether public opinion will follow — will be found less in headlines and more in the data: streaming numbers, book sales, speaking line-ups, polling tables, and the simple question of whether people still feel compelled to listen when Harry and Meghan speak.
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