Prince Harry's drop in popularity in the US a cause for commercial concern

Prince Harry relies on his royal image to be able to earn money. But the negative headlines about him are putting his reputation, and subsequently his business partnerships, at risk.

When the 38-year-old left his royal duties with his wife Meghan Markle in 2020, he lost his taxpayer-funded income from the British government. His father cut him off financially, and he revealed in his 2021 Oprah interview that he only had his mother Princes Diana's inheritance to get him by, which Fox Business noted to be around £10 million.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly primarily relied on this money and so they had to find a way to be "financially independent" as they wanted. They then signed multimillion-dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify under their Archewell Productions company, and in 2022 released the "Harry & Meghan" docuseries on Dec. 8 and the "Archetypes" podcast on Aug. 23.

Both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also received hefty payouts for their books, her children's book "The Bench" and his memoir "Spare," respectively. It is believed she received an advance payment of $700,000 while he signed a $40 million four-book deal with Penguin Random House with his memoir pegged at $20 million.

But the negative headlines that constantly accompany the couple, more so recently on Prince Harry, are not doing their reputation any good, especially in their home country in the U.S.A.

Royal expert Kinsey Schofield claimed that the couple's constant criticism of the royals and the Firm has led Americans to turn their backs on them. She said there are even calls for them to return to the U.K., where they are more unwelcome than in the U.S.A. She called it "the result of over-exposure" and "a result of over-sharing."

The Duke of Sussex is now less popular than his disgraced uncle Prince Andrew, according to a poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton for Newsweek. His popularity in the U.S.A. has remarkably declined in a short span of time from Dec. 5, 2022 to Feb. 19, 2023. His popularity in the country has sunk 48 points with an approval rating of -10 (he was liked by 32 percent and disliked by 42 percent of those polled). Meanwhile, the Duke of York has an approval rating of -2, with 26 percent of those polled saying they liked him and 28 percent saying they disliked him.

During this period, Prince Harry appeared in several promotional interviews and criticised the royal family ahead of the release of "Spare" on Jan. 10. But the decline in his popularity is mostly because of his criticism of royal family members in his memoir.

The book was scathing of royal family members, especially King Charles III, Camilla, and Prince William. The duke said his brother physically attacked him in 2019 and left him with bruises and scrapes. He also accused his stepmother of leaking stories to the British tabloids for her "selfish PR campaign" and suggested that his father is emotionally insensitive.

The dip in numbers spells trouble for the Sussexes' business ventures since they bank on their name for their projects. According to Forbes, "they are now in the broadest corporate sense a formidably backed media and entertainment enterprise."

The decline in popularity of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in the U.S.A. affects "their ability to develop, and sell, entertainment and/or meaningful media content." The fact that Americans like them less than Prince Andrew should reportedly be "cause for immediate concern" as it could backfire on their projects with Netflix and Spotify and on future chances of commercial success. There is no update yet on whether there will be a season two of "Archetypes" and Netflix has yet to announce a release date for the couple's next docuseries, "The Heart of Invictus."