Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are deftly “detoxifying” their image amidst some major revelations, according to Royal commentator Jack Royston. 

He believes this strategic move is enhancing their popularity in the US.

However, on Newsweek’s Royal Report podcast, he highlighted a snag in their progress due to “a very negative streak in their fan base”.

Referring to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s response to Princess Kate’s cancer diagnosis, he said they were clearly trying to establish a positive tone: 

“There was an implicit suggestion that the Harry and Meghan fan base should have laid off her…but clearly, 

nobody paid particular attention to those words and, or at least, certain significant figures within the Harry and Meghan fandom did not listen to that message.”

Jack observed that Harry and Meghan’s reputation had become associated with animosity towards the Royal Family, but they’ve put considerable effort into changing this narrative: “And over the past year and a half, they’ve been working quite hard to detoxify and they’ve been doing a reasonably good job of it,” he said.

Praising their efforts, he mentioned, “The tour of Nigeria was fantastic. They did some good positive stuff with the Invictus Games last year.”, reports the Express.

The results appear to be positive as Jack points out: “You can see it in the polling of American public opinion…Americans are warming to them again.”

Still, he warns that the lingering negativity among their fans could stem from times when Royal controversies were rampant: “But this very negative streak in their fan base is a hangover from…the era of Royal bombshells.”

This negative streak, he continues, “People may well see this stuff on social media, see a picture of Harry and Meghan on the account that’s posting it, and think, goodness me, is that really what Harry and Meghan are about these days? ” He suggests that Harry and Meghan may need to “take on” their own fanbase if they want to fully “detoxify” their brand. He adds: “That would signal to people that they don’t support the way that Kate was treated in a really clear way, and in so doing, it serves to protect them from being damaged reputationally, kind of damage by association.”

The expert notes that the baseless conspiracy theories haven’t disappeared completely, using the example of the claim that Prince William was “telling off” his wife on the Buckingham Palace balcony: “It was a moment on the balcony that went mega, mega viral.”

He says studying the actual footage makes it clear that that William was talking to King Charles, not reprimanding Kate.

This “telling off” narrative only appeared in a manipulated edit of the footage, as Jack explains: “And that is just the exact party trick that Harry and Meghan’s most cynical critics have been pulling on them for years. That is what people do,”.

“All of those body language conspiracy theories that inhabit TikTok, or if they talk about the Meghan claw, and they say that Meghan controls Harry all the time. She uses her hand like a claw to kind of pull him away from people he’s trying to talk to.”

“It’s all very, very toxic and ridiculous,” he says, “but it’s exactly what the anti-Meghan trolls do.”

Overall, he says, the stage is set for a healing of the reported rift between the two Royal brothers.

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Source: USA Today