The enthusiastic reception Meghan Markle and Prince Harry received in Nottingham suggests the couple continue to have meaningful support in Britain, according to one of the Duchess of Sussex’s American allies.
US commentator Sunny Hostin also highlighted the presence of numerous women of colour who came out to welcome Meghan, embrace her and show their support during her first public engagement in the UK.
Hostin, who has previously said Meghan experienced “abject racism” in Britain, argued that the warm response during the Sussexes’ latest public appearances presented a sharp contrast to the criticism the duchess has faced since the couple stepped back from royal duties.
“I was really pleased by the reception they received in Nottingham,” Hostin said. “You saw women of colour hugging Meghan and welcoming her back after she had faced so much negative press.”
She added: “I think this is genuinely a step in the right direction.”
Hostin said returning to Britain could prove beneficial for Harry and Meghan, while also giving the Duke of Sussex a chance to rebuild connections with his wider family.
“The first step is that they have moved back to the UK,” she said. “Now his children will have the chance to be closer to their family and to the culture. He has said that is something they wanted.”
Following Harry’s comments to GQ that he hoped to repair his relationships with his relatives, Hostin suggested his public remarks may have been intended to reach them directly.
“I suspect one reason he is saying publicly that he wants reconciliation is so his family can hear him,” she said. “I hope they can resolve their differences, because the world feels as though it is on fire. What better time is there to turn to family and the people you love?”
An ally said the warm response Meghan and Harry received in Nottingham challenged their critics and demonstrated that the couple still have support in Britain
American commentator Sunny Hostin pointed to the number of women of colour who gathered to welcome and embrace the former Suits actress during her first British public engagement
Speaking on The View, Sunny Hostin said she was delighted to see members of the British public greet Meghan and Harry so warmly
However, recent YouGov polling shows that Prince Harry’s favourability rating among the British public stands at 33 per cent, compared with 22 per cent for Meghan.
In an interview with GQ published on Tuesday, Harry said he had not given up on the possibility of reconciling with his father and brother.
“I want it to work out. Of course I do,” he said, while also suggesting that “some people don’t want it to work out”.
The prince called reconciliation “the key point” at a time of global uncertainty and admitted that he “grieves” the breakdown of his relationship with Prince William.
His comments, which did not contain an apology to his family, came one week after he and Meghan made their first joint public appearance in the UK.
As crowds applauded and asked for photographs, the Duke of Sussex repeatedly placed a reassuring arm around Meghan.
Meghan kissed one supporter and embraced several others during the appearance.
When one well-wisher told her it was good to have her back in Britain, Meghan smiled and replied: “It’s wonderful to be back.”
Their royal-style charity engagements in the East Midlands, just six weeks after returning to live in Britain, came after the King described the Sussexes as ‘private citizens’.
Critics have called the visits, organised by Team Sussex, a ‘cynical’ attempt to return to royal duties ‘by stealth’.
The View co-host Ana Navarro said Harry had been told to stop airing his family grievances in public and must privately call his estranged brother Prince William if he genuinely wants to repair their shattered relationship.
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She said any meaningful attempt to rebuild trust needed to happen behind closed doors.
‘I think that a lot of the problem has been exacerbated by the fact that it’s been played out in public,’ she said.
‘So much of the dirty laundry has been aired out in public. And surely they have relatives in common, friends in common.’
She suggested Harry could achieve far more by communicating directly with William rather than repeatedly discussing their estrangement in the media.
‘I just think that if he delivered that message privately right now it might go further than continuing to do it publicly because there’s been a breach of trust and there’s been a lot of hurt, I think, on both sides.’
Navarro then took aim at the very public nature of Harry’s complaints about the monarchy, including the lucrative media projects that have exposed some of the Royal Family’s most intimate disagreements.
‘It needs to be dealt with privately, not with interviews and tell-all books and selling documentaries and things like that,’ she declared.
‘You know, at some point he’s going to need to pick up the phone or go see his brother and have it out.’
Prince Harry conducted a 42-minute interview with GQ magazine on Tuesday
Whoopi Goldberg, who knows Harry personally, said she hopes the brothers can eventually resolve their differences.
She went further, predicting that they would ultimately find common ground.
‘I don’t know that this particular interview will help mend fences. But I do believe he would like to,’ Goldberg said.
Fellow panellist Alyssa Farah Griffin suggested King Charles’s health could be weighing on Harry’s mind, particularly as the family confronts the passage of time.
‘We have limited time with our loved ones on Earth,’ she observed, suggesting Harry might be realising that ‘time is the one commodity we can never get back’.
Sara Haines also appealed for reconciliation, invoking the brothers’ late mother, Princess Diana, and the extraordinary bond her sons shared during their childhood.
‘That love of their mother was shared only between those two boys,’ she said, adding that she hoped to see ‘a peaceful reconciliation at some point’.
The royal brothers’ bitter estrangement has dominated headlines for years, particularly since Harry and Meghan’s bombshell 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During the interview, Meghan alleged that an unnamed member of the Royal Family had raised concerns about the skin colour of their son Archie before his birth.
She also revealed that she had experienced suicidal thoughts while struggling with life inside the monarchy.
Further revelations followed in the Sussexes’ 2022 Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, before Harry unleashed another series of extraordinary allegations in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
In the book, Harry described William as his ‘archnemesis’ and alleged that his older brother had physically attacked him during a heated confrontation.
Those claims thrust the brothers’ private tensions further into the international spotlight and intensified speculation over whether their relationship could ever recover.
