BREAKING NEWS: Harry and Meghan just got slapped round the face – and they’ve barely been back 2 minutes
The couple have not received a warm welcome in their new UK home
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s highly publicised return to Britain has already ruffled feathers in the affluent area they are planning to settle in. They should heed it as a warning of what is to come.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have alighted upon the Cotswolds as a kind of genteel UK alternative to Montecito, known, like the Californian enclave, for its A-list residents and bourgeois tastes. But if the high-fliers in California were vaguely intrigued at the prospect of royalty in their midst, the same cannot be said of locals in one of Britain’s most idyllic regions.
Pensioner Zana Aires told the Express the couple were a “disgrace” and “should be banned” from the National Landscape shortly after they touched down in the UK on Wednesday. Others denounced them as “two-faced” and accused them of “wanting publicity”.
The Cotswolds is known for its rural beauty and celebrity residents (Image: Getty)
We also heard concerns that heightened attention on the already-popular corner of southern England could spark tourism chaos, especially if Harry and Meghan continue courting the spotlight despite their status as private individuals.
The duke and duchess have yet to comment on the reasons for the move, which came as a shock six years after they acrimoniously split with the Firm and moved abroad.
But if Meghan’s reported plans to return to acting and continue running her lifestyle brand from Britain are any indication, it will be business as normal for their PR machine, pumping out press briefings and keeping fans and commentators fed with a stream of social media updates.
While it is true that the Royal Family inevitably serves as a kind of quasi-reality drama for UK watchers and those around the world, the Cotswolds isn’t Hollywood and appetite for the Sussexes’ particular brand of self-promotion is likely to be thin on the ground, there or anywhere else in Britain.
It wasn’t just natives to the rural region who had cutting words about Meghan and Harry’s return. Pam Nield, 74, a retired John Lewis worker from Macclesfield, visiting on holiday, described them as an “embarrassment”.
“How can [the Firm] trust them? I don’t agree with it,” she said. “I quite like the Royal Family, but he disgraced himself and she did as well.”
It’s no surprise that polling shows just 21% of the British public thought the couple should return from the States.
Their “freedom flight” from the constraints of an oppressive monarchy clearly hasn’t worked out as planned, so they’re back with their tails between their legs. It will remain to be seen if a semblance of the popular reputation they cast aside can be won back, both from Harry’s estranged family members and the public at large.
