Meghan and Harry’s warm reception in Nottingham showed that the couple still have significant support in Britain, according to an ally of the Duchess of Sussex in the United States.
American commentator Sunny Hostin drew attention to the women of colour who came out to greet and embrace the former Suits actress during her first public engagement in the UK.
Hostin, who has previously said Meghan experienced “abject racism” in Britain, praised the welcome the Sussexes received during their unofficial royal engagements in the East Midlands.
She described the reception as a step in the right direction after years of criticism directed at Meghan following Megxit.
“I was really pleased with the reception that they received when they went to Nottingham,” Hostin said. “You had women of colour just hugging Meghan and welcoming her back when she had received so much bad press.”
She added: “I think this is actually a step in the right direction.”
The US presenter said the couple’s return could benefit them while also giving Harry a chance to move closer to his wider family.
“A first step is that they’ve moved back to the UK. Now his children and their children will get the opportunity to be closer to family. They’ll get the opportunity to be closer to the culture. He said that’s something that they wanted,” she said.
Following Harry’s comments to GQ that he hoped to reconcile with his family, Hostin said: “I suspect one of the reasons why he is publicly saying that he wants to reconcile is so that they hear it.”
“I hope they do work it out because the world feels like it’s on fire. And what better time to be able to cleave to your family and your loved ones than now?” she added.
Meghan and Harry’s warm welcome in Nottingham was described as a rebuke to their critics and evidence that the couple still has considerable support in Britain, according to an ally.
American commentator Sunny Hostin praised the women of colour who came out to greet and embrace the former Suits star during her first public engagement in Britain.
Speaking on the US talk show The View, Sunny Hostin said she was pleased to see the British public welcome Meghan and Harry so enthusiastically.
Recent YouGov polling puts Prince Harry’s favourability among the British public at 33 per cent, while Meghan’s stands at 22 per cent.
In an interview with GQ published on Tuesday, Harry said he had not given up hope of reconciling with his brother and father.
“I want it to work out. Of course I do,” he said, while suggesting that “some people don’t want it to work out”.
The prince called reconciliation “the key point” amid turmoil around the world and admitted that he “grieves” the loss of his relationship with William.
His comments, which did not include an apology to his family, came a week after the Sussexes made their first public appearance together in the UK.
The Duke of Sussex repeatedly placed a protective arm around his wife as crowds cheered the couple and stopped to take selfies.
Meghan kissed one well-wisher and hugged several others.
When a supporter welcomed her back to the UK, 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’.
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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.
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 explained. ‘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.’
Ms 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, during which he said he wants to ‘work it out’ with his family
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 during the talk show discussion, 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.