Prince Harry, Meghan Markle Humiliated as Brutal New Poll Exposes Major Failure After Australia Trip

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been dealt a public setback after a new Roy Morgan poll found most Australians were unmoved by their recent visit to the country, with the couple failing to lift their standing among respondents. The survey, conducted after the four-day trip, found that 81% of those aware of the visit said it did not improve their opinion of the pair, while 59% said they would not welcome them moving to Australia.

The backlash sits against a wider royal picture that has increasingly favoured Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales. A separate YouGov survey found 76% of Britons had a positive view of Kate and 73% felt the same about William, while King Charles remained broadly popular on 63%.

The Australia Poll

The Roy Morgan findings were drawn from a special Channel Seven SMS Pulse Poll of 1,767 Australians aged 18 and over, carried out on 18 and 19 April 2026. Awareness of the tour was high, with 82% saying they knew Harry and Meghan had visited Australia for four days, but that recognition did not translate into warmer feelings.

Only 19% said the trip improved their opinion of the couple, while 87% said it would not help Prince Harry repair his relationship with the king. Meghan fared little better, with 75% saying the visit had not shown a more positive side of her.

Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine said the general tenor of the answers suggested the Sussexes still had 'a lot of work to do' to repair their image in Australia and their relationships with other members of the royal family. The poll does not suggest a hostile country so much as an audience that has already made up its mind.

William's Advantage

The polling lands as William quietly sharpens his own public identity. In a recent interview, the Prince of Wales said, 'change is on my agenda,' adding that he wanted 'change for the better' and 'not too radical a change, but change that needs to happen.'

William has also been associated with a plan to sell 20% of the Duchy of Cornwall's property over a decade, while £500 million is expected to be invested in local communities, including affordable housing and environmental projects. The duchy spans 128,000 acres across 19 counties and provides William with private income of more than £20 million a year.

Taken together, the picture is of an heir trying to look pragmatic, modern and, crucially, unmessy. The contrast is exactly where Harry and Meghan struggle. Their appeal, once built on freshness and celebrity wattage, has been repeatedly complicated by distance from the institution they left behind and by a public that does not always reward grievance with sympathy.

Royal Popularity

The Australian poll sits uncomfortably alongside broader popularity data that seems to tell the same story in a different accent. YouGov's findings placed Kate on 76% positive, William on 73% and Harry and Meghan far lower, at 31% and 26% respectively. The contrast is striking, and not flattering to the Sussexes.

The Roy Morgan survey also asked whether Australians would welcome the couple moving to the country. A majority of 59% said no, while 41% said yes. Asked whether the late queen would have approved of the trip, respondents were split almost evenly, with 51% saying no and 49% saying yes.

Harry and Meghan still command attention, but attention is not the same as approval. In the public imagination, especially in Australia, the pair appear to have run into the old royal rule that duty, dull as it can seem, usually plays better than self-exile.