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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spoken out about Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the royal family for the first time in an interview for British TV with the Rupert Murdoch-owned TalkTV network.
DeSantis was asked about his thoughts on Harry and Meghan by vocal critic of the couple, and show anchor, Piers Morgan, in an interview for his eponymous talk show.
In a discussion about wokeism and cancel culture, Morgan recounted to DeSantis how he had been "fired" from his job as a morning show anchor after he said he disbelieved claims Meghan made during her interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
"Now I'd be fired for believing them," he said, before DeSantis told him that his book The Courage To Be Free knocked Harry's memoir, Spare, off chart top spots in the U.S. earlier this year.
"We're all very grateful," Morgan replied. "What do you make of those two [Harry and Meghan]? Do you have a view of them."
"I don't," DeSantis said. "I think that...I really respected the queen. I think she was really elegant and I think her stoicism was really good. The younger generations, I think it's a little bit more mixed and that's just a reality."
When pushed by Morgan on whether the couple were "annoying," the governor conceded: "I think for some they are. Look, I'm not involved in that...but I think for some Americans they can be."
DeSantis' comments come as Harry and Meghan have recently seen their popularity plummet to its lowest level ever among Americans, following the release of the Spare memoir and the couple's six-part Netflix docuseries.
Research conducted by Redfield & Wilton for Newsweek in February found that Harry was liked by just 32 percent of U.S. survey respondents, while he was disliked by 42 percent, giving him a net approval rating of -10.
This was a 48 point drop from where he stood in December at +38, before the release of the Netflix show and his memoir, in which he made a number of bombshell claims against the royal family and tabloid media.
Meghan fares no better than her husband, being liked by just 27 percent of Americans and disliked by 44 percent. This gives her a net approval rating of -17, down from +23 in December.
Earlier in March the couple faced similar results in research conducted by Redfield & Wilton in Britain.
According to the data, Harry has a net approval rating of -22 among Brits, a 37 point drop since November 2022. Meghan's dropped by 31 points leaving her net approval rating at -33.
DeSantis is no stranger to bad news from an opinion poll. A newly released Morning Consult survey, which conducted research from March 17 to 19, found that 54 percent of "potential Republican primary voters" support former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, compared with 26 percent for DeSantis.
Newsweek has approached representatives for Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Ron DeSantis via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more