Public less positive towards Royals following further Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor revelations but most still think it will continue in the future
Ipsos in the UK has released its latest polling results on the perception of the Royal Family among the British public. Fieldwork was conducted from the 13th – 16th of February – so before the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor this week.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
- Continued low approval ratings for Andrew: 82% of Britons have an unfavourable opinion of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor (+5 percentage points from Nov ‘25). Just 5% are favourable (-4ppts from Nov ’25). This matches Andrew’s unfavourability rating from October 20th – 21st taken immediately after he announced he would not be using his titles, but before his title as Prince was removed by King Charles III.
- Public attention: 62% of Britons say they have been closely following recent developments about the release of the Epstein files, including information related to Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Similar to numbers following speculation about Keir Starmer’s future.
Continued criticism of the Royal Family’s overall handling of the situation: 28% of Britons think the Royal Family have handled the situation with Andrew well since allegations were first made against him. This is down from 37% in November 2025.
Overall attitudes towards the monarchy are down slightly.
- Support for the monarchy sees a decline: 37% of Britons believe abolishing the monarchy would be worse for the country, down from 47% in Nov ‘25. 25% think it would be better (+4), and just over a quarter (27%) see no difference (+2). Although figures are down slightly, over half (51%) of Britons continue to think it is likely that Britain will have a monarchy 50 years from now (-4). 7 in 10 (70%) think it will still exist in 20 years’ time and 8 in 10 (79%) think it will exist in 10 years’ time.
- Gen Z more negative about the Royals. 39% think it would be better for Britain if the Monarchy was abolished, versus 20% that think it would be worse.
- Favourability ratings for the Royal Family outside of Andrew Mountbatten have fallen slightly from November.
- The Prince and Princess of Wales remain the most popular royals. However ratings are down compared to November. 63% of Britons have a favourable opinion of the Prince of Wales (-8) and 62% have a favourable opinion of the Princess of Wales (-7).
- They are followed by Princess Anne at 53% (-9).
- 47% of Britons have a favourable opinion of the Royal Family as a whole (-7 ppts).
- 48% have a favourable opinion of King Charles III (-5ppts), with 46% believing he is doing a good job as King (-8 ppts).
- Three in ten (30%) are favourable towards Queen Camilla (-3).
- Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, hold favourability ratings of 26% (-2) and 17% (-1) respectively.
- Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has a favourability rating of 8% favourable, 57% unfavourable.
- Since Charles III became King,40% of Britons think the Royal Family has become more transparent (-2ppts) vs 17% who say more secretive (+1). 32% say no change.
Commenting on the findings, Keiran Pedley, Director of UK Politics at Ipsos, said:
These findings suggest that the latest Andrew revelations have damaged the Royal Family in the court of public opinion. The public are less likely to think the Royals are handling the issue well and less likely to think it would be a bad thing if the institution was abolished. However, it is unclear how lasting any damage will be. Only one in four think it would be better of the Monarchy was abolished and 8 in 10 still think it will exist in ten years time. Although, apparent scepticism towards the institution amongst Gen Z Britons is something to watch.
• Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,088 adults aged 18-75 across Great Britain. Polling was conducted online between the 13-16 February 2026.
• Data are weighted to match the profile of the population. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of error.
