King Charles III will be "relieved" that the royals have come out "on top" after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's reputational bombshells as he prepares to mark his first year on the throne, a British morning show has heard.
Charles is expected to mark the first anniversary of his reign quietly on September 8 with Queen Camilla at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in 2022.
Over the past year, the king has established the direction he wishes to take the monarchy, as well as participating in his coronation, an overseas visit to Germany, and his first Trooping the Colour celebrations.
Alongside these more positive developments, the monarchy has faced a number of knocks from the king's youngest son, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, in their joint Netflix docuseries which was released last December, and the prince's memoir, published in January.
In terms of popularity though, the projects appeared to backfire on the California-based duke and duchess of Sussex, who saw their net approval ratings plummet on either side of the Atlantic while the royal family members, such as Charles and Prince William, fared much better.
This, Newsweek's chief royal correspondent, Jack Royston, told Sky News anchor Kay Burley on Monday, that this will be of some relief to the 74-year-old monarch.
"The start of his very first year as king was a very strange mix of grief and constant business, because the two weeks leading up to [Queen Elizabeth's] funeral was just him traveling the country and there was a lot going on with so many emotions he must have been processing at the time," he said of Charles.
"A lot of this year was building up to the coronation," he said of the ceremony which took place at Westminster Abbey on May 6.
"Right in the middle of that planning period, they had Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary and Spare, so there was a whole period of just battening down the hatches and weathering the storm."
Buckingham Palace adopted a blanket "no comment" position when it came to both the Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries and Spare memoir, despite both containing potentially damaging revelations.
"I think while, obviously, Charles will be very upset about what was said," Royston noted, "I think he would be very relieved that the royals came out of that period reputationally on top and that it was actually Harry and Meghan who suffered significant reputational damage."
Poll data in Britain, after the release of the Netflix show and Spare memoir, showed that for the first quarter of 2023, Harry and Meghan's net approval rating was at its lowest ever, while William and Kate—the Prince and Princess of Wales—are the monarchy's most popular couple.
A similar picture is reflected in the U.S. though a tide change has begun to show that Harry and Meghan are regaining ground after the initial drops in popularity after their media bombshells.
Charles' accession and Queen Elizabeth's death are not expected to be formally marked by the royal family, however, Prince Harry is scheduled to visit Britain on the eve of the anniversary to attend the WellChild charity awards ceremony where he could pay tribute to his grandmother in his speech.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
