Harry and Meghan's acclaim as royals reduced in new poll; Prince Andrew still least favourite

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have hit an all-time low in a British poll ranking their popularity as royals, but Prince Andrew is still the least favourite royal.

The poll by YouGov showed that British citizens' opinions of the royal couple continue to take a downward turn since their controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey in March. Positive opinion of Prince Harry was 43 per cent in April, a month after the tell-all, but it has fallen by nine points to 34 per cent in the recent poll, reports Mail Online.

Meghan has also seen a steady decline in her popularity this year, as her positive opinion was at 30 per cent in March, 29 per cent in April, and has dropped to a further three points to 26 per cent now. When it comes to negative opinions, Prince Harry was at 59 per cent while his wife was at 65 per cent.

According to YouGov, in addition to their tell-all chat with Winfrey, their "poor responses to their statements surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal from Afghanistan" also played a role in the sharp decline in their popularity.

Some Twitter users said that the couple's positions in the poll are "pointless" as they have already quit their royal duties and established financially independent lives in the United States instead. However, others said that the poll indicates they are "fading away" from the public eye.

A Twitter user wrote, "the more Harry & Meghan whined about their over-privileged life in multi-million mansion & virtue-signaled, the more they turned people off. They're completely tone-deaf & out of touch with reality," while another commented, "they absolutely truly deserve it. Their favourability ratings must be in minus until they apologise to the royals."

However, it's still not Harry and Meghan who are least favoured by the British public, as Prince Andrew continues to hold the title owing to his alleged involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the latest sexual assault case against him. The second son of Queen Elizabeth II has an overall negative rating of 83 per cent and a positive rating of just 6 per cent.

The monarch herself continues to remain the favourite royal ever, with 80 per cent of the population holding a positive opinion of her.