Meghan’s divisiveness may well work to her advantage

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Five years on from Megxit, as the Duchess of Sussex launches a new lifestyle empire, her viewing figures are high but, in the UK at least, popularity levels are low. So, ahead of the release of her new podcast tomorrow, experts ask whether anything she does can win wider appeal?

"The problem is that people are much more interested in the royal gossip than they are in learning how to make a jam." The Countess of Sandwich gets to the crux of what she sees as the Duchess of Sussex's rebrand dilemma.

As an American woman who married into the British aristocracy back in 2004, the countess knows firsthand the challenge of slipping between two cultures.

When I first spoke to her about this – long before "Megxit" – she was positive that Meghan would win over the nation. "Having this American optimism and this go-get attitude, that is what you guys kind of like about us, right?" she told me.

Seven years on, the countess remains optimistic about Meghan's progress. "As an American, I look at her and I think she's a hustler. She's taking these opportunities, using them as stepping stones to get to where she wants to go."

Only not everyone appears to agree. In the UK, Meghan's popularity rating was just 19% at the start of 2025 according to a YouGov poll, down from 26% a year earlier. (In the US, the view is slightly more favourable, sitting at 43% in January 2025.)

Her recent Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan, which featured her upcycling supermarket bouquets and scenting flannels with lavender water, wasn't received entirely warmly either.

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