Poll tells Meghan: Stop using title for your gain
THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex should stop using their royal titles to promote their business deals or political views, exclusive Sunday Express polls in the US and UK reveal today.
The surveys also found that Meghan’s popularity has dropped sharply here and across the Atlantic.
It follows her apology to the Court of Appeal last week that she did not reveal she had co-operated with the authors of controversial biography Finding Freedom.
There were also shock disclosures of emails revealing she acknowledged a letter to her father could be leaked.
Last night a palace aide was reported as saying that Meghan’s apology to the court showed why legal action was best avoided.
A newspaper reported the aide as saying: “Perhaps this gives them the understanding of why the royals don’t like to get
‘An elevated version
of the Kardashians’
into court cases. It’s not like this wasn’t going to happen.
“There is no gleeful dancing about it, nobody is wearing the ‘told you so’ T-shirt, they are family members.”
Meghan has also attracted recent criticism for using her royal title when making a series of “cold calls” to US politicians to lobby for federal paid parental leave.
Asked “Should the couple use their royal titles for business or political purposes?”, 73 per cent in the UK and 59 per cent in the US said they should stop.
When asked “Has your opinion of Meghan Markle changed in light of the court revelations?”, 29 per cent in the UK said “it has reduced’’ and 62 per cent said their opinion had “remained the same”. In the US, 20 per cent said they thought less of her now.
In Britain, people were divided when asked “Should the couple lose their titles of Duke and Duchess?”. Almost half of UK respondents (48 per cent) believe the couple should be stripped of their titles compared to a third (33 per cent) in the
where they live with son Archie, two, and daughter Lilibet, five months.
It comes after a week of legal turmoil for Meghan, 40, in her privacy case against the Mail on Sunday newspaper. The Duchess was forced to apologise for “forgetting” to reveal her co-operation with the writers of Finding Freedom at an earlier hearing.
Hitherto unseen texts between her and former top Kensington Palace aide Jason Knauf also showed she acknowledged that a letter to her estranged father Thomas
Markle – the subject of the paper’s legal appeal – could end up being made public.
In court documents released on Friday, it was revealed that Harry, 37, suffered “constant berating” from Prince Charles over Meghan’s toxic relationship with her father and his dealings with the media.
In a 2018 email to Knauf, she claims Charles and other senior royals demanded of Harry: “Can’t she just go and see him and make this stop?” Her blunt message adds: “They just don’t understand.” Meanus, while, a senior Hollywood production figure told the Sunday Express he fears Harry and Meghan may be losing their allure.
He said: “I think to a large portion of the population here, Harry and Meghan are now famous simply for being famous; a sort of elevated version of the Kardashians with even more earning potential because of the royal cachet their titles carry.
“But all that potential, and whatever public support remains, would vanish overnight if those titles were stripped.”