Prince Harry's Interviews Made Him Millions But Cost Him His Reputation

Prince Harry is about to release his memoir in the latest attempt to tell the story of his royal life and exit from the monarchy after past efforts sent his U.K. approval rating plunging.

The Duke of Sussex was liked by 81 percent of Britain and disliked by 11 percent, placing him among the most popular public figures in Britain at the time of his engagement to Meghan Markle, rivaled only by other royals like Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William.

Not only that, but he maintained his popularity through 2019, a year in which the couple said the British press and social media trolls turned on Meghan. The final YouGov polling of the year showed he was liked by 72 percent and disliked by 21 percent, while Meghan was liked by 54 percent and disliked by 34 percent, making her around as popular as Prince Philip and King Charles III were at the time. She was considerably more popular than Camilla, now the Queen Consort.

The couple took a hit to their reputations after their decision to quit, but Harry was still more liked than loathed and they looked set to reap the rewards of their new lives in the United States 2020, signing big money deals.

But after their interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Harry's popularity crashed deep into negative territory in the United Kingdom and it hasn't recovered since.

Prior to the broadcast, at the beginning of the month, he was liked by 53 percent and disliked by 41 percent of British people.

His popularity crashed progressively month by month until it hit a low that August, when 34 percent liked him and 59 percent disliked him, almost identical figures to his current position, though at present 33 percent like him, according to YouGov.

Harry and Meghan fare better in America, but the are both still less popular than Kate Middleton, by five points in Harry's case and 20 points in Meghan's.

That is despite Meghan telling Oprah she had been wrongly blamed over an argument in which Kate made her cry.

In other words, while Meghan and Harry's royal bombshells have earned them huge exposure and no doubt boosted both their multi-million dollar, multi-year Netflix and Spotify deals, criticizing Harry's family appears to have devastated their reputation in Britain and there is little sign it has improved their standing in American public opinion.

In fact, U.S. media outlets have begun to question the decision to retell the same story multiple times, suggesting Spare could be the final time that it makes commercial sense to revisit their royal story.

Past efforts sparked a U.K. media backlash—which may come as little surprise to anyone familiar with this story—and the same is likely to happen again.

The more interesting question, though, will be whether Prince Harry's most comprehensive narrative yet, standing at 15 hours and 39 minutes in audiobook form, will finally answer the questions left over from past versions of this story.

Most significant will be whether he reveals which royal family member expressed "concerns" about how dark Meghan and Harry's unborn child's skin might be before he was born.

There has also been, at points, minimal detail in the stories they have already told, both to Oprah Winfrey and to Netflix because of the way they have left out names or declined to state what was actually said.

The prince revealed during his Harry & Meghan documentary that Prince William was shouting and screaming during royal exit negotiations, but he has said nothing of what his brother was angry about.

During the same crisis talks at Sandringham, we were told King Charles III spoke untruths, but Harry didn't say what they were.

Meghan told Oprah she had asked a senior palace official for permission to go to a psychiatric hospital while she was experiencing suicidal thoughts, though she didn't say who, meaning there is little prospect of Britain seeking accountability on her behalf.

Marrying Harry was the last time she saw her passport, driver's license and keys, but she didn't say why. A female royal, Meghan told Oprah, said: "Why don't you just lay low for a little while, because you are everywhere right now," even though she felt she had barely left the house, though again we don't know who said it.

Harry and Meghan have said little about the detail of the allegations Meghan bullied two PAs out of the royal household. Meghan's friend, Janina Gavankar, told ITV in the days after the Oprah interview that she knew "why someone had to leave and it was for gross misconduct."

There may be stories to tell from the last few months after Prince Harry had a difficult experience on the day his grandmother, the queen died.

First, Meghan had to pull out of joining him on the trip to Scotland. Then, he was expected to arrange his own plane to Balmoral, while Prince Andrew joined Prince William, Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, who flew together.

The announcement of the queen's death was made while Prince Harry was still in the air, meaning the media and many members of the public found out before he did.

Only a royal U-turn allowed Harry the chance to wear his uniform in the queen's honor despite his two front-line tours in Afghanistan.

While Harry has spoken a lot already, what has been missing is the details. With over 416 pages in the book, the full story may finally come out.

How his reputation fares in the days after the book's publication could be another matter entirely.