Meghan Markle and Prince Harry received a glowing endorsement from a former Conservative prime minister during an interview that went viral on social media.
Boris Johnson, a conservative viewed as a key architect of Brexit, reveals in his new memoir, Unleashed, how he tried to talk Harry out of leaving Britain.
And in a follow-up interview on GB News, he spoke fondly of the Duchess of Sussex. His praise undoubtedly surprised some, partly because Meghan is unpopular with Tory voters, who gave her a net approval rating of minus 73 in YouGov polling in September.
Some Meghan and Harry fans also appeared to chalk up his comments as a victory for the Sussexes against the journalist who was interviewing Johnson, since she has been critical of Meghan before.
The former prime minister said: “Prince Harry and Meghan, in my view, they came to an event we did for female education and they were brilliant. And she was particularly good and articulate and on it and on the detail.”
GB News host Camilla Tominey replied: “So you got on quite well with both of them?”
“Yeah, I got on well with both of them,” Johnson continued. “I also worked with Harry when he did his Invictus Games for disabled veterans in the Olympic Park. And so, in a fit of pomposity, I thought, This national asset is leaving our country. I think, on the whole, he could be a force for good. I’m going to try and discourage him.’
“I had a pathetic attempt at that. It didn’t work. I failed to avert Megxit, but I did deliver Brexit,” he said.
One response on X (formerly Twitter) was liked 3,100 times and viewed almost 150,000 times. It read: “Watch Camilla Tominey’s face as Boris Johnson gushes praise for Harry and Meghan; she looks like she’s chewed a wasp. I loathe him, but this clip will keep me warm this winter.”
Meghan and Harry fans appeared to infer Tominey’s opinion of Johnson’s remarks based on her facial expression, although she did not say that she disagreed or objected to his comments.
Elsewhere in the interview, Johnson told her about his relationship with Queen Elizabeth: “I used to see the queen every week. That was one of the great, great joys of the job. It was a kind of free psychotherapy, and there was no confession so appalling. She’d heard it all before.”
Unleashed reveals that the queen had bone cancer in the year before her death, on September 8, 2022.
Johnson also praised Elizabeth’s private secretary, Sir Edward Young, who has clashed in the past with Harry and was nicknamed “the Bee” in the prince’s memoir, Spare.
“Her private secretary, Edward Young, who was a very, very nice and good man, I think it was he who said that she had been unwell for a long time. But she was absolutely determined to fulfill her constitutional duty, which was to oversee the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.
“She did that. She also had a record-breaking tally of prime ministers who served under her. She probably wanted one more,” Johnson said.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, William and Kate, Meghan Markle and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
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