A snub from a Hollywood executive has left Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with a “terrible” label, an expert has claimed

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will struggle to recover from claims they are “whingers” following a “terrible” snub from a Hollywood executive, an expert has claimed.

Royal commentator Lee Cohen was discussing how public attitudes to Harry and Meghan have changed over the years, pointing to the time when a Spotify executive claimed the Sussexes were “f****** grifters”.

Bill Simmons said the title of the series the streaming giant should have launched with the couple should have been called “The f****** grifters”. The snub came after Meghan’s podcast was dropped by Spotify after one series.

Mr Cohen, who was a UK policy adviser to the US Congress, told The Sun: “It all started to change through so many factors and then you have executives in Hollywood calling them… ‘expletive’ grifters. Now that [was] just broadcast everywhere and social media created hashtags calling them ‘Harry and Meghan are grifters’ – what a terrible label to have.

“Grifters is so at the other end of the spectrum from, you know, the Royal Family. It’s unbelievable. But that ‘grifters’ comment will stay with them forever and they’re now the butt of Hollywood jokes by comedians and [in] cartoons… Everyone has their number, which is that they’re whingers, complainers, hypocrites, all of this.

“Quite frankly I don’t know how they can recover from it.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle being called ‘grifters’ is a ‘terrible label to have’, an expert says