Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been urged to take a more measured approach if they hope to improve their relationship with the British public.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly due in the UK this week, with claims they may be looking at ways to spend more time in Harry's home country. But according to PR expert Mayah Riaz, any return will need to be handled differently from the couple’s recent public strategy.
Speaking to the Mirror, Riaz said Harry and Meghan should not focus on trying to become universally popular again.
“I believe they can, but I’d say that it would require a very different PR strategy from the one we have seen from them in recent years,” she said.
“The biggest opportunity for Harry and Meghan is not to try to convince us to love them again, but to give us a reason to feel neutral or positive about them.”
Riaz said rebuilding public goodwill would take time and would depend on consistency, restraint and work that feels genuine rather than carefully staged.
“They probably cannot PR their way back into being universally popular, and I don’t think that should be the objective,” she added. “What they can do is gradually rebuild goodwill through consistency, restraint and work that feels meaningful rather than heavily managed.”
The PR expert also suggested that the Sussexes may benefit from stepping back from public explanations and allowing their work to shape how they are viewed.
“The Sussex brand has been built around telling their side of the story, but they may find a more powerful PR move that would be to stop explaining themselves and simply let their actions do the talking,” Riaz said.
