New polling has shown the latest favourability rankings among members of the Royal Family, with Prince William being crowned the most popular, but there is one key senior member of the Firm who appears to have divided the nation. The three most popular members of the Royal Family are the Prince of Wales, with 74% of those polled holding a favourable view of him, his wife, the Princess of Wales, with 71% and Anne, the Princess Royal with a 70% favourability ranking.
Prince William was only disliked by nearly two in 10 Brits (17%), while Princess Kate had a negative score of 14% and Princess Anne of 12%. According to YouGov, King Charles ranked fifth with a positive score of 59%, despite being the fourth member on the list, after he was overtaken by the Royal Family as a whole, which ranked fourth with a 62%.
The King’s wife however, Queen Camilla, appeared to divide the nation as those who said they hold a favourable view of her reached 43%, while those with a negative view reached a 44% score. Another 13% answered “Don’t Know”.
Duchess Sophie, along with Princess Anne, had the lowest negative score of 12%, with five in 10 (50%) of those polled saying they like her.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex came near the bottom of the list, just above Prince Andrew, with Prince Harry only having 28% of people saying they like him and 62% saying they don’t.
Meghan’s popularity plummeted even further than her husband’s, as her positive score reached a 20%, while the negative was 67%.
The most disliked member of the Royal Family remains Prince Andrew, who, amid the latest bomshell allegation of a new biography, took a nose-dive to the last spot in the list, with nearly nine in 10 (87%) Britons saying they dislike him and just one in 20 (5%) saying they do.
According to YouGov, older Britons generally have more positive views of the royals, except for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The data company stressed in its latest finding that it remained the case that positivity towards royal figures increases with age, with, for example, King Charles liked by only 30% of 18-24 year olds but 77% of the over-65s.
The exceptions are Prince Andrew (who is widely disliked by all age groups) and Harry and Meghan, who are looked upon more favourably by young Britons than their elders (although they are still net unpopular across all generations).
Only 17% of over-65s have a positive view of Prince Harry, compared to 33% of 18-24 year olds, and just 10% of the oldest Britons feel favourably towards Meghan, compared to 25% of their youngest counterparts.