People have been conflicted in the aftermath of Prince Harry’s memoir publication. On the one hand, many people feel for the Duke of Sussex and all the extremely difficult life experiences he has had. On the other hand, royal fans feel he shouldn’t have so publicly aired his grievances. For one royal expert, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle might have expected a better reception following the release of Spare.
“It’s very difficult to speak for Harry and Meghan in terms of what their overall objective was with the Netflix docuseries, with the book,” Victoria Arbiter told TalkTV (via Express). “I think Harry with his book in particular was very keen to get his side of the story across, so mission accomplished in that regard.
“He doesn’t hold anything back, as anyone who has read the book knows. He’s very willing to share every facet of his life. “In that regard, I think yes, he has achieved his objective but I don’t think the book was received quite how he was hoping.”
Arbiter explained, “There are people that remain hugely sympathetic to him, but there’s been a lot of criticism, so the broader public is talking about him in a way that I think he perhaps didn’t anticipate. “I think they thought there would be a similar level of sympathy to that following the Oprah interview so I think they probably have been quite shocked.
“Americans in general are a sympathetic bunch, and I am generalizing when I say that, and I think Harry and Meghan have enjoyed that level of sympathy that they perhaps weren’t given in the U.K.
“But I think they will have been shocked by some of the negative pushback, I don’t think that was expected at all.”
Express reports that 64 percent of Brits now say they have a negative view of Prince Harry, based on a recent YouGov survey. Meanwhile, a poll coordinated by Newsweek found that 38 percent of U.S. respondents disliked Harry, a drop of 45 points since Dec. 5.