‘It’s backfired on Harry & Meghan Markle’, claims PR guru as he reveals why couple’s latest backlash is worst one yet
THEY once represented an institution that promoted national unity but Prince Harry and Meghan now seem to cause division whatever they do.
As they sit in their nine-bedroom mansion in Montecito, California, contemplating the latest controversy to beset them after a row over Harry accepting an award in honour of a war hero, the couple could be forgiven for wondering why they can’t do right for doing wrong.
The row over Harry accepting the ESPY Pat Tillman Award – an honour named after an NFL American footballer who abandoned his lucrative playing career to serve in the US Army Rangers in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks only to die under friendly fire – is the latest in a series involving awards for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
AVIATION ACCOLADE
In January there was outrage in some quarters when Harry, 39, a former Army Air Corps Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner, was inducted into the Living Legends of Aviation at a ceremony in Beverly Hills, joining a list of “remarkable people of extraordinary accomplishment in aviation and aerospace”.
Critics said the Duke, who served in Afghanistan, was unworthy to be ranked alongside astronauts, innovators and engineers, and record breakers as a Living Legend.
They complained even though previous inductees also included a long list of pilots who have become celebrities and celebrities – such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta – who have become pilots.
HUMANITARIAN HONOURS
There was similar outrage in October 2022 when a human rights organisation named after the assassinated US Senator Robert F Kennedy gave Harry and Meghan a Ripple of Hope Award because of their “heroic stand” against “structural racism within the institution” of the monarchy.
WOMEN ADVOCACY
In May last year when Meghan, accompanied by Harry and her mother Doria Ragland, went to New York to collect the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Award for her advocacy on behalf of women and girls, the accolade was overshadowed by a row over paparazzi following them in a car chase.
The couple’s fans blame the British media for stirring up much of the controversy but the Sussexes, who lost the support of many Britons when they quit official royal duties, are now becoming controversial figures in the US as well.
When they left the UK in the spring of 2020 and set up home first in Canada and then the US, Americans seemed generally sympathetic.
US newspapers and television channels portrayed Meghan as their American princess who had been traduced by racist Brits.
But over time opinion has become more divided on the other side of the pond.
PAT TILLMAN AWARD
More than 76,000 people signed a petition against Harry receiving the Pat Tillman Award.
A Redfield & Wilton poll commissioned by Newsweek magazine last week found 38 per cent of Americans opposed the honour after the war hero’s mother, Mary Tillman, objected on the grounds it should go to an unsung hero.
“I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award. There are recipients that are far more fitting,” she said.
Tillman’s widow, Marie, and some veterans supported giving it to Harry for his work creating the Invictus Games for injured troops – but only 21 per cent of Americans backed them, the poll found.
The largest group, 41 per cent, were undecided, perhaps reflecting the fact that many Americans know very little or care even less about Harry and Meghan.
Among those who do care, there are political divisions.
Donald Trump is not a fan and polls have suggested his Republican supporters tend to be more hostile than Democrats.
On social media there are warring groups of Americans fans who either stoke hatred towards the couple or the Royal Family.
Americans loved having own Royals in Harry & Meg… but whining means fairytale is over
ONCE upon a time in America, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle epitomised a modern fairytale, claims American writer Lee Cohen.
The charming prince and the glamorous actress had captured the world’s imagination and could do no wrong.
And in the United States especially, their story seemed like a Hollywood script come to life.
Finally we had a royal couple we could claim as our own. And they moved here, too!
Wow, they really loved us as much as we loved them. Yet that was then.
Now, like their trajectory in Britain, Americans’ infatuation with Harry and Meghan has significantly cooled.
Prince Harry’s nomination for the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the ESPY Awards was supposed to be a respectful nod to him setting up the Invictus Games for wounded servicemen and women.
But the decision to hand him the gong did not land well in America, a country where gratitude for genuine service runs deep.
The award is named in honour of former NFL player Pat Tillman, who left a lucrative sports career to serve in the US military and ultimately sacrificed his life for his country. It holds a deeply symbolic value.
Many Americans slammed the choice, arguing others in the veteran community were more deserving and lacked Harry’s privileges.
Mary Tillman, Pat’s mother, openly expressed her dismay at Harry’s selection, describing him as a “controversial and divisive individual” and asserting that there are “far more fitting” potential recipients.
But while some in the audience gave him a standing ovation, Venus Williams, sister of Meghan’s good friend Serena, remained seated, a perceived snub.
The episode has dealt a wincing blow to the Duke’s reputation.
But for many Americans the Sussexes remain irrelevant.
Autumn Brewington, a longtime royal commentator and former Washington Post journalist who wrote the paper’s royal newsletter, said: “Americans don’t really make a distinction between royalty and celebrity and to most Americans royalty is just another form of celebrity.”
While noting the brutal war of words on social media between fans of the Sussexes and supporters of the rest of the Royal Family, she added: “My sense is that a majority of Americans don’t care.”
Megxit timeline
- November 2016 – Harry formally reveals he is in a relationship with Suits actress Meghan Markle.
- September 2017 – Meghan tells Vanity Fair the couple are in love and happy together.
- September 2017 – The couple make their first public appearance together holding hands at the Invictus Games in Toronto.
- November 2017 – Prince Charles issues a statement revealing Harry and Meghan are engaged.
- May 2018 – Harry and Meghan tie the knot, becoming Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
- October 2018 – The couple announce they are expecting their first child while on their first overseas tour in Australia.
- March 2019 – Harry and Meghan set up their own household, splitting their joint operation with Prince William and Kate.
- May 2019 – Meghan gives birth to a baby boy named Archie.
- October 2019 – Harry reveals his rift with his brother William in a bombshell documentary.
- January 2020 – The couple stun the Queen by announcing plans to quit senior roles and settle in North America. After ten days of talks at Sandringham, it’s agreed the couple will no longer be working royals and will give up their “Royal Highness” titles.
- March 2020 – Harry and Meghan carry out their last official engagement and move to California.
- September 2020 – Netflix announces a huge deal with the couple.
- February 2021 – Buckingham Palace announces the couple’s split as working members of the monarchy is permanent and they will lose their royal patronages.
- March 2021 – The palace says it is “very concerned” about allegations of bullying made by former staff of Harry and Meghan, launching a probe.
- March 2021 – Meghan tells Oprah Winfrey Archie wasn’t made a prince after “concerns and conversations” about “how dark” his skin would be when he was born. She claims Kate “hurt her feelings” and made her cry before her wedding. Harry says Charles has stopped taking his calls and he has been “cut off” financially.
- January 2023 – Harry publishes his tell-all memoir Spare, launching scathing attacks on William, Kate and Camilla. He says he and William once got into a physical fight over Meghan.
- April 2023 – Harry has a “heart-to-heart” talk with his dad before agreeing to come to the Coronation in London.
- September 2023 – Harry rejects an offer to spend the anniversary of the Queen’s death at Balmoral with his father.
- February 2024 – Prince Harry flies to the UK to be with his father as royal experts claim their four-year rift could be put aside. They meet for half an hour before Harry flies home. He does not meet William.
AWARD CONTROVERSY
The latest row may have raised the Sussexes’ profile.
Some cynics argue publicity over controversies surrounding famous people receiving awards is often useful to awards organisations and to celebrities receiving the awards.
But British PR guru Mark Borkowski thought it had damaged the couple and the awards. “It’s definitely backfired on the awards,” he said.
And although he admitted he usually believed “the only bad publicity is an obituary notice”, he said Harry and Meghan should worry about the negative publicity in US newspapers and on television.
The couple’s office has declined to comment but friends have suggested they have been stunned by criticism of Harry’s Tillman award for Invictus, a Paralympic-style international sports competition regarded by friend and foe alike as his greatest achievement during his royal career.
Increasingly though, those Americans who are interested in him and Meghan want to see the couple replicate that achievement and move on from complaining about their treatment inside the Royal Family.
Brewington argues they have promised much but not delivered, especially after the failure of Meghan’s $20million podcast deal with Spotify, which prompted one executive at the US company to label them grifters.
“Harry and Meghan have said they are going to do a lot of things that nobody has actually seen them do yet,” she said.
Borkowski echoed her. “It’s too early to write their obituary notice but they are going to need to get out there and be seen to be doing things that are successful,” he said.
SUSSEX STRATEGY
To be commercially successful and maintain their lifestyle they need public recognition in the US.
But the problem is that whatever they do leads to criticism.
Much of it begins in Britain but spreads across the Atlantic, fuelled perhaps by Harry’s decision to declare war on much of the UK’s national media.
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But many editors would argue they are only reflecting the controversy the couple create among their readers and viewers.
Veteran royal watcher Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said: “I think people are just seizing on every opportunity to criticise them, even when it’s perhaps not justified, because they are divisive figures.
“I think it’s the effect they have had on the general public in the past few years.”
A spokesman for the Sussexes declined to comment when approached by The Sun but the couple do appear to have accepted they have a problem and that they need to improve their image on both sides of the Atlantic if they are going to make a success of their new life.