Americans Back Meghan Markle on Skipping the Coronation

Meghan Markle's plan to skip King Charles III's coronation is opposed by just 12 percent of Americans while 42 percent approve of the plan, according to polling for Newsweek.

Prince Harry is due to be in London on May 6 to watch his father be crowned eight months after Queen Elizabeth II died, making Charles king.

Meghan and Harry's son, Prince Archie, turns four the same day and the duchess will stay in California with the children, also including Princess Lilibet.

She will not be the only one to stay away as President Joe Biden will skip the coronation while first lady Jill Biden will be watching the service at Westminster Abbey, in London, alongside Harry, the royals and major figures.

Forty-two percent approved of Meghan's choice, including 16 percent who strongly approved, among a representative sample of 1,500 Americans polled by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek on April 30.

Meanwhile, 12 percent disapproved, including five percent who strongly disapproved, while 37 percent neither approved nor disapproved and nine percent said they did not know.

Gen Z were particularly in favor of Meghan staying away from the ceremony, with 57 percent approving, including 19 percent strongly. Eleven percent disapproved, including four percent strongly.

Overall, 30 percent felt Prince Harry should spend more time in the U.K. while 16 percent felt he should not and 36 percent said they did not care.

Asked whether King Charles should visit Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in California, 33 percent felt he should, while 16 percent felt he should not and 35 percent said they did not care.

A statement on behalf of the king in April read: "Buckingham Palace is pleased to confirm that The Duke of Sussex will attend the Coronation Service at Westminster Abbey on May 6th. The Duchess of Sussex will remain in California with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet."

Prince Harry launched a series of stinging criticisms of his family in his book Spare, which said the king did not hug him after Princess Diana died and left him alone in his bedroom for several hours after breaking the tragic news.

He suggested Queen Camilla sacrificed him on "her personal PR altar," that William attacked him physically during an argument about Meghan and that Kate Middleton complained that Princess Charlotte cried after trying on her "too baggy" bridesmaid's dress for the first time.

However, the book was not the end of Harry's disclosures about his family as in April he told the High Court in London Prince William settled a phone hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper division, taking a very large sum to go "quietly."

Meanwhile, he suggested staff in Charles' office blocked his own efforts to get compensation because he was concerned it might damage the campaign to make Camilla his Queen Consort.

In a near 17,000-word witness statement, seen by Newsweek, Harry wrote: "With hindsight, I now understand why staff at Clarence House were being so unhelpful and were seemingly blocking our every move as they had a specific long term strategy to keep the media (including NGN) onside in order to smooth the way for my stepmother (and father) to be accepted by the British public as Queen Consort (and King respectively) when the time came, and anything that might upset the applecart in this regard (including the suggestion of resolution of our phone hacking claims) was to be avoided at all costs."

Meanwhile, a recent statement from the Sussex team suggested Meghan was "going about her life in the present."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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