The latest Meghan Sussex (née Markle) YouGov poll shows her UK favourability rating has dropped to its lowest level since 2017, with just 27% of respondents holding a positive view and 65% expressing a negative one. As usual, British media rushed to amplify the results. Headlines from Newsweek, Daily Express, and The Mirror framed the numbers as a personal defeat. Some even compared her to Prince Andrew, who polled lower but received far less scrutiny. But there’s a deeper story behind these headlines. Meghan is no longer a working royal, lives in California, and holds no public office. So why does the British press continue to poll her and weaponize the results?
The answer is distraction. The timing of this latest royal favourability YouGov poll coincides with a growing wave of criticism toward the monarchy. And as always, when royal PR flounders, the easiest diversion is Meghan.
Royal Reporters or Royal PR?
Within minutes, royal reporters shared near-identical YouGov poll takes across social media, all reinforcing the same message: Meghan Sussex is unpopular, William and Kate are untouchable. This isn’t new. Former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt has previously explained how palace aides shape coverage through off-the-record briefings and WhatsApp groups, especially when controlling narratives around King Charles’s decisions, including his refusal to guarantee Prince Harry’s UK security.
Chris Ship, ITV’s royal editor, opened the coordinated push. His tweet framed the numbers with sharp contrast: 75% approval for William, 5% for Andrew, and Meghan lumped in just above. His tone mirrored the palace’s PR language, precise, clinical, and conveniently timed.
Jack Royston of Newsweek tweeted that Meghan’s “fanbase is at its smallest ever,” highlighting her 20% rating without asking why she’s even polled. He used a viral photo of Meghan and Harry from their Beyoncé Cowboy Carter date night, a moment that debunked divorce rumors and had social media swooning over their chemistry. Pairing that image with a story about rejection wasn’t just ironic. It was calculated.
Russell Myers, royal editor for the Daily Mirror, tied it all together. His tweet repeated nearly identical language to the others, calling Meghan’s popularity “an all time low” while celebrating William and Kate’s approval ratings. His chart-heavy post tried to wrap the entire narrative in credibility.
Cameron Walker, GB News royal correspondent, leaned into melodrama. “Is there a way she can win back public support?” he asked, as if Meghan Sussex were running a political campaign rather than living a private life in California. GB News has a known editorial bias toward defending the monarchy and sensationalizing Meghan’s every move.
These aren’t just coordinated tweets. They’re traffic strategies. As Mail Online’s own SEO director recently admitted, the outlet is losing clickthroughs to Google’s AI overviews and is now prioritizing “resilient” branded searches, like “Meghan Markle Daily Mail.” In other words, they don’t cover Meghan because she’s newsworthy. They cover her because she ranks.
Related | No, Meghan Sussex Isn’t Losing Popularity – The Data Exposes the Real Bombshell
They Say Meghan Is the Problem, But the Numbers Say Otherwise
Meghan no longer receives taxpayer money, unlike Prince William. She isn’t skipping public duties or disappearing on holidays like Kate Middleton. She hasn’t faced scrutiny over royal finances like King Charles. And she has no public scandals on record, unlike Prince Andrew. Yet despite all this, she remains the preferred target of media hostility.
The latest YouGov poll was released just days before Meghan and Harry’s seventh wedding anniversary. It followed another wave of royal commentary criticizing her work, her popularity, and her continued presence in public discourse. Because her name continues to overshadow the ones they would rather protect.
Poll Coverage Hides Scandals Behind Meghan Sussex’s Popularity Rating
While the media spotlight turned toward Meghan’s polling numbers, far more consequential royal stories have unfolded. Kate Middleton’s new “nature video” faced criticism from supporters and media alike, including a scathing review by The Daily Beast that called the series “smug” and out of touch. Online, even royal fans questioned why the Princess of Wales, absent from duties for months, chose to release scripted videos instead of resuming her work.
Meanwhile, the UK public learned that royal funding has tripled since 2012, largely due to Buckingham Palace renovations. Channel 4 Dispatches revealed last year that Prince William’s rental properties failed to meet basic living standards, with some tenants living in homes with black mould. The Guardian uncovered that William and Charles earn millions from leasing land to schools, the NHS, and military services. All while Prince Harry and Meghan Sussex remain financially independent. And yet, the headlines read “Meghan Markle’s popularity hits record low”—not “Royal estates profit from public services” or “Future king’s tenants suffer fuel poverty.”
During a televised debate, Republic CEO Graham Smith dismantled the royal PR narrative. He pointed out that Prince William worked only four days in the last month, most of them near his home. Smith also noted that independent studies found the royal family’s impact on charity to be “close to zero.” Yet media coverage keeps returning to Meghan’s favourability score, ignoring the royals who cost the public hundreds of millions.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAA🤣😂🤭🤭😅. This had me on the floor laughing as @GrahamSmith_ systematically demolished the sycophantic British media PR script.🤭🤭🤣😂😅😂😅😂🤣🤭😅😂🤣🤭😅😂🤣🤣😂😅😂🤣😂🤭 pic.twitter.com/U5Spq03QjF
— Zandi Sussex (@ZandiSussex) May 12, 2025
The Media Prefers Meghan As a Shield, Not a Subject
“Meghan Markle’s” YouGov poll popularity rating has become a tool. Not to measure public sentiment but to deflect from the monarchy’s failures. Every time criticism mounts—whether about finances, transparency, or effort, the press pivots. They rerun the same storyline: Meghan is unpopular, Meghan is irrelevant, Meghan is to blame. The polling numbers may be real, but how representative is a sample of just 2,231 people in a country of 67 million? The narrative they serve is carefully constructed, and far from impartial.
Curiously, no one ever questions whether King Charles should even be king. If his son William is supposedly more popular, isn’t that a red flag? Shouldn’t the heir the public actually prefers be the one wearing the crown? But of course, this isn’t a democracy. The monarchy survives on inheritance, not approval ratings. The public doesn’t vote. Their preferences don’t matter. That’s how Charles and Camilla became King and Queen, despite consistently low favourability—and without either ever recovering from the damage of their marital infidelities.
Meghan Sussex is not the issue. She’s the distraction. As public trust in the monarchy erodes and criticism mounts, the headlines get louder. But they’re aimed at the wrong royal. And the real question is: who benefits from keeping it that way?
Discover more from Feminegra
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
She is not the head of state or his wife, nor is she the future king or the future queen, so why does her popularity polling matter? I think, in addition to her being used as a distraction, I think it’s also because they know she is popular and that popularity scares them.
As a Brit, Harry and Meghan remain popular in this home and the silent British Majority (whom is barely heard from, because our voices have been drowned by the minority voices shouting the loudest from their Public Media Platforms) – are allegedly barely represented on those Platforms.
Also didn’t that Poll also claim some time ago that Queen Camilla is more popular than our beloved late Princess Diana whom everybody loved?!
However someone later revealed that that same Gov Poll is allegedly run by Camilla’s Nephew – called Ben.
So forgive me if I take the results of that Poll with a pinch of salt.
This is so infantile and boring. Didn’t we’ve a similar poll a few weeks ago but supposedly taken in the USA?? Meghan is not running for any government office which being popular would be beneficial ,what impact does it brought into her life if she’s popular in UK or not ?? These so called journalists act like bullies in the playground picking on the kids smaller than themselves so they feel better about themselves. Trust me , even if Meghan was the top of poll , they wouldn’t say so as it doesn’t project the narrative they want to promote . If hypocrisy was fatal we would have barely any media personal, left. I don’t know how they can keep going with this nonsense. It’s exhausting!!!!!!