Prince Harry's upcoming memoir has been branded "inappropriate" by Brits, with a new survey showing the vast majority are not interested in what the royal renegade claims will be an "accurate and wholly truthful" account of his life.
The Duke of Sussex "blindsided" senior royals on Tuesday with the revelation he will release an "intimate and heartbreaking" biography next year which will supposedly cover his entire life, including the scandalous Megxit events of last year.
The announcement, which insiders are describing as "deeply disrespectful" and the "last straw" for relations between Harry and the rest of his family, has already prompted calls for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be excluded from the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations next year.
It's now emerged that Brits are also disgusted with Harry's decision.
A survey released on Thursday morning by British pollster YouGov found 38 percent believe it's "very inappropriate" for the Duke to publish a memoir, while a further 15 percent say it's "fairly inappropriate". Of the 5808 Brits surveyed, 14 percent called it "fairly appropriate" and 9 percent said it was "very appropriate". The rest didn't know.
They're also not that interested in reading Harry's account. Just 14 percent of those questioned are either "very" or "fairly" interested in reading the book, while 67 percent are "not interested at all" and 15 percent are "not very interested". The rest didn't know.
The Duke's popularity has dropped significantly in recent years, especially since the Megxit scandal. In November 2018, YouGov found 77 percent of Brits had a positive opinion of him, the highest of any royal. In the wake of his decision to step down as a senior royal, his favourability fell from 71 percent in October 2019 to 55 percent in January 2020.
The latest YouGov survey found just 31 percent of Brits had a positive view of Harry. He's now the second most-disliked royal, above embattled Prince Andrew. Harry's wife, Meghan Markle, is slightly above him.
In a release on Tuesday, Prince Harry said he was not writing the book "as the prince I was born as, but as the man I have become".
"I've worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story - the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned - I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think."
Robert Jobson, a royal biographer, told the Mail earlier this week that this memoir was always going to be controversial.
"This is bound to cause mayhem amongst the House of Windsor. If Harry, which seems inevitable, goes into detail about mental health issues involving his wife and alleged racism at the heart of the royal family, it will be hugely damaging to the House of Windsor and the Monarchy as an institution."
