Prince Harry has been having great fun in Vancouver with his wife Meghan Markle – but he has been dealt a difficult blow as the results of a new poll are published
Prince Harry has been on top form while attending the Invictus Games in Vancouver, but he has been dealt an awkward blow regarding his royal status.
A new poll has revealed that a majority of the British public largely no longer consider Harry to be ‘royal’ – and instead see him as a celebrity. The research by Ipsos found just 21 per cent of Britons think the Duke is more a member of the Royal family than a celebrity. By contrast, 40 per cent said he was more of a celebrity and 20 per cent said he was both a royal and a celebrity.
Out of a sample size of 1,091, 16 per cent said Harry was neither a royal nor a celebrity, with the remainder saying they did not know, the Telegraph reports. Harry and Meghan famously stepped down as working members of the royal family at the start of 2020, less than two years after their wedding. As a result, they lost their Royal Highness status.
They are now all but estranged from the royal family having made a series of blistering attacks on the Firm – in their Oprah interview, their Netflix docuseries and Spare. The Sussexes have rarely visited Britain since they left and have only met with other royals on a handful of occasions; King Charles is thought to have met his granddaughter Lilibet just once.
The biggest rift appears to be between Harry and his older brother, with sources stating that William no longer trusts Harry after he revealed intimate details about his family and openly criticised King Charles, Queen Camilla , William and Kate.
Meanwhile, the poll also found that almost three times as many members of the public viewed Harry negatively in comparison to his older brother, Prince William. Just 15 per cent had an unfavourable view of the future King, compared to 43 per cent who were unfavourable towards Prince Harry. Over half of the respondents viewed Meghan unfavourably at 54 per cent, whereas just 12 per cent saw Princess Kate in the same way.
Questions were initially raised over why Harry was allowed into the US after he admitted to taking drugs in his memoir Spare. Think tank the Heritage Foundation subsequently launched a legal case and argued that the US Government should release records regarding his visa application to determine whether his drug use was disclosed. The organisation alleges that he may have concealed the illegal drug use that should have denied him a US visa.
It has also been claimed that Joe Biden may have given Harry preferential treatment after he relocated to California from the UK when he and Meghan bowed out of royal duties altogether. The latest in the two-year legal battle saw a judge in the US hint at the possibility of releasing some of the sealed documents from the Duke of Sussex’s visa application.
In a Washington DC hearing on Thursday, the judge revealed that they wanted the “maximum disclosure as long as it doesn’t violate privacy”. They also explained how they were “not foreclosing the possibility that there might be some possible relief” and asked Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide requests for redactions or “continued withholdings”.
Trump, who can intervene and ask for the documents to be released as US president, previously warned that Harry could face consequences if he lied about taking drugs on his US visa application.
