New poll shows Meghan Markle is more unpopular with Americans than ever, scoring a MINUS-2 approval rating
Meghan Markle’s popularity has plummeted in the United States’, with a new poll showing she now has a minus approval rating in her home nation.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been on a media blitz to try and repair their image, with Meghan seen returning to her old life as a Hollywood A-lister as she partied with the Kardashians, Adele and the Biebers at Beyonce‘s 42nd birthday party this week.
But their comeback hasn’t landed as they’d hoped, with a new poll conducted by Newsweek showing only 31 percent of Americans like her while 33 percent don’t, giving her a net approval rating of minus-2.
It is a staggering fall from grace among the US public, who liked the duchess by plus 23 percentage points in December according to a separate poll from the outlet. Many were moved by her tales of fighting back against the royal ‘machine’, as well as the hardships she’d suffered as a divorced, non-white member of the world’s most famous family.
By June, her popularity was falling as she owned an approval rating of plus six percent.
Her husband’s excoriating biography Spare was met with backlash on both sides of the Atlantic after it was published in January, but his image has taken less of a blow than his wife as he currently boasts an approval rating of plus 12 percent. The last time the poll was taken, Harry’s approval rating in the United States fared slightly better and sat at 18 percent.
Meghan Markle once boasted a plus 23 approval rating in her home country, but she has since seen her likeability plummet to negative two percent
Prince Harry remains above water among the American public, but his plus six percent approval is a far cry from the plus 38 percent he enjoyed in December
Both Harry and Meghan have struggled to launch their new lives in north America after their public exit from the Royals in January 2020.
And the latest poll, which was conducted among 1,500 US adults between September 3 and September 4, found more Americans dislike Meghan, than they like her, for the first time in five months.
Her net approval rating of minus two percent comes after the couple’s Netflix documentary ‘Harry and Meghan’ failed to impress many American viewers.
Less than a million viewers tuned into the first episode compared to the more than 2.4 million in the UK – a far less populated nation where the Sussexes are even less popular.
Just days before the show aired, Newsweek published a poll on December 5, 2022, that found Meghan’s popularity stood at plus 23, while Harry was beloved as he owned an impressive net approval rating of plus 38.
In January, around a week after Harry also published his scandal-filled memoir Spare, Harry dropped a staggering 45 points to minus 7 – while Meghan fell 36 points to minus 13.
At her lowest point, another poll in February had her at minus 17 – as Americans had a lower opinion of the former actress than the disgraced Prince Andrew, whose frienndship with serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein saw Andrew banished from public life.
Harry again tried and failed to find streaming success with his latest Netflix show ‘Heart of Invictus’, where his philanthropic efforts with the Invictus Games failed to crack the platform’s top ten charts following its release on August 30.
Their declining status in the US also saw the couple widely mocked after South Park parodied their flip-flopping on seeking ‘privacy’ in February.
The sketch reportedly sparked fury in the couple’s household as Meghan was allegedly left ‘upset and overwhelmed’ by her depiction in the irreverent cartoon.
This week Meghan returned to her old Hollywood life as she partied with Kerry Washington (left) and Kelly Rowland (center)
In February, South Park parodied the couple’s flip-flopping on seeking ‘privacy’ in a sketch that reportedly ‘upset and overwhelmed’ the duchess
Harry and Meghan pictured following their high-profile engagement in November 2017
Until recently, however, Meghan had enjoyed a bounce in popularity in the US, as her approval rating hovered at plus six percent in June.
In the same poll, Harry’s plus 12 percent rating came from 39 percent of American adults liking him compared to 27 percent having an unfavorable view of the prince.
The outlet says it conducted another study of the semi-royals favor following Meghan’s high-profile appearance last week at Beyoncé’s birthday – where she linked up with some celebrity pals and hardly shied away from the cameras.
Body language expert Judi James told MailOnline that she ‘oozed confidence as a celeb influencer’, as she looked more than comfortable back in the public eye.
James said that Prince Harry’s wife seemingly reverted to her showbusiness roots with ‘practiced looks at the camera, Tig-girl poses and confident smiles’ during the star-studded occasion.
Meghan is rumored to be on the brink of a massive commercial relaunch of her Tig blog to rival Gwyneth Paltrow’s $250million brand Goop.
A return to Instagram is also said to be on the cards – with experts predicting she could make $1million or more per sponsored post.
Her embracing of a new Hollywood lifestyle has led to speculation that she wants to escape Harry’s pious victim narrative and ‘lead with love’, while he hopes to capitalize on his charitable efforts by being seen as a leading global philanthropist.