Prince Harry's Reputation Is on Cusp of 'Spontaneous Combustion' in U.S.

Prince Harry should "take the club and drop it on the ground" as his critical account of his experiences in the royal family threaten to become a "powder keg" that alienates Gen Z, a PR expert told Newsweek.

The Duke of Sussex's Spare became the fastest selling non-fiction book ever after shifting 400,000 across hardback, ebook and audio formats based on pre and first day sales, according to publisher Transworld Penguin Random House.

The book and interviews he gave around it also provoked a storm of criticism, which may sound like nothing new to anyone who has followed the world of royal commentary for the past few years or watched Harry and Meghan Markle's Netflix documentary.

However, Harry's reputation has sunk to its lowest ever in Britain, with almost two thirds of the country saying they dislike him in a recent YouGov poll. And Eric Schiffer, chair of Reputation Management Consultants, told Newsweek there are signs the U.S. media may be changing its attitude to the couple.

He said: "There's been an inflection point. A spontaneous combustion because of the position of late as a professional victim.

"That's the concern that he will need to balance. I will imagine that he will need to tack back at some point and I have recommended publicly that he refocus on the positive works, the environment and mental health, equality, that he and Meghan have done so well before, and to take the club and drop it on the ground."

Prince Harry Says Meghan Did Not Accuse Royals of Racism

Among Spare's revelations, Harry accused Prince William of pushing him to the ground during an argument, accused Queen Camilla of leaking to the media, and said Queen Elizabeth II advised Meghan to write the letter to her father, Thomas Markle, that he then famously leaked to the media.

However, one of the most incendiary developments has been an account Harry gave about his and Meghan's own past comments.

The duke denied the couple accused the royal family of racism when Meghan told Oprah Winfrey a royal expressed "concerns" about how dark her unborn child's skin might be before he was born. Harry suggested instead that it was unconscious bias.

Harry told interviewer Tom Bradby: "The British press said that, right? Did Meghan ever mention 'they're racists'?"

He added: "The difference between racism and unconscious bias, the two things are different."

And he told 60 Minutes: "I think that you speak to the majority—maybe not all—but the majority of mixed-race couples around the world, that the white side of the family would wonder, whether talking openly about it or amongst themselves, what their kids are gonna look like."

"The key word here was 'concern,' as opposed to 'curiosity,'" he continued. "But the way that the British press, what they turned it into, was not what it was."

Nels Abbey, author of satirical book Think Like A White Man, told Newsweek: "Unconscious bias can be racism without the conscious knowledge of the fact that you are being racist.

"So you've absorbed a set of behaviors, set of thoughts, set of ideas from your surroundings, and that's pretty much landed you where you are. You're a product of your environment.

"Unconscious bias can be racism. It's not entirely as separate as Prince Harry suggested in that regard.

"He is right that it might just be that they didn't know better because it was a new thing for the family, it might just be unconscious bias in the truest sense, or unconscious racism might be the better way of putting it."

Harry and Meghan did not use the term "racist" during their account of the remarks during their CBS Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021, but they did not use the term "unconscious bias" either, meaning that at the very least they left it ambiguous.

In terms of the British media, an L.A. Times headline on the day of broadcast also read: "Meghan Markle, Prince Harry claim royal racism in Oprah talk."

Schiffer said: "Very few at the palace are likely to believe that he wasn't trying to send some missiles that implied racism in the early stages.

"This was a global media perception based upon his accusations and the sensitivities about race that pervade the globe and this is also a very sophisticated media communicator who was well aware of how that would land."

Prince Harry's Account of Blooding Rituals While Hunting

However, there may be other aspects to Spare, including his account of hunting, that will be jarring to the young progressives who have for long been so positive about the Sussexes.

The duke wrote about a blooding ritual in which his face was pressed into the belly wound of the first stag he killed by a Balmoral guide who then told him to let the blood dry on.

Spare reads: "He placed a hand gently on my neck, and now I thought he was going to hug me, congratulate me. 'Atta boy.' Instead he pushed my head inside the carcass."

"As my face dried, as my stomach settled, I felt swelling pride," Harry continued. "I'd been good to that stag, as I'd been taught. One shot, clean through the heart. Besides being painless, the instant kill had preserved the meat."

Schiffer said: "That kind of rendition will be horrific and gruesome to many Gen Z who care about protecting animals. So it goes against, in a mangled way, his desire to win the hearts and minds of Gen Z and Millennials when a not insignificant portion are big time animal lovers and protectors.

"And for many they will look at maiming an animal, however fast, as a serious question about who that individual is."

What This Means for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Even before the memoir came out there were already signs that elements of the U.S. media might be shifting in stance on Harry and Meghan.

Since Spare, however, the examples appear to be growing, with Don Lemon recently saying on CNN: "Everyone has a family. I have arguments with my family. Am I going to put that out there for the whole world to see?" He added: "It's just not done."

Judge Judy told Good Morning Britain she would be "furious" if a grandchild behaved like Harry, adding that she "would think that that child or grandchild was a selfish, spoiled, ungrateful one."

She said: "That's what I would feel and be really hurt. I think anybody with a brain would see that."

Schiffer said there is still a way for Harry and Meghan to address the reputational damage if they pivot back to their more traditional focus on philanthropy and social justice.

"It's not too late," he said. "Harry can deflect and ensure that his brand doesn't get cemented as the professional victim by refocusing on the impressive and honorable efforts to bring the important issues of the environment, mental health and equality back to attention of the world versus his own personal pain of his experience with his family.

"It's potentially disfiguring to his brand and that then puts him on a powder keg where be begins to lose his desire to be positioned as a leader and alienates markets that previously he owned—Gen Z and Millennials but on a global level.

"They've done a beautiful job outside of England and even in England they've done a good job with the young people."