rince Harry and Meghan Markle are “damned if they do [and] damned if they don’t”, according to royal expert Russell Myers.

The Mirror‘s royal editor made a guest appearance on HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast to discuss the latest royal headlines and his new book William and Catherine: An Intimate Inside Story, and shed some light on the public backlash surrounding the Sussexes’ two-day humanitarian visit to Jordan.

Speaking to our hosts in the latest exclusive episode, which you can watch in full below, Russell revealed: “I kind of feel with Harry and Meghan that they’re damned if they do, they’re damned if they don’t. They have a profile. It’s still big business for charities and organisations around the world who will want to work with them.

Prince Harry in a dark blazer and white shirt and Meghan Markle smiling in a white trouser suit© PA Images via Getty Images
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Jordan visit has dominated headlines this week

“But the issue with going to Jordan, is that it is pretty much in the royal family’s backyard. The royal family have a really close relationship with the Jordanian royal family. We’ve just seen William in the Middle East as well.”

Criticism is ‘largely unfair’

Harry and Meghan, who stepped down as working royals in 2020, travelled to Jordan this week after an invitation by the World Health Organisation’s director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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The aim of their visit, which comes in the wake of Harry’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest – and subsequent release after 11 hours in police custody – on suspicion of misconduct in public office, was to engage with Jordanian leaders and senior health officials, meet WHO teams, visit frontline health and mental health programmes and meet World Central Kitchen staff coordinating food relief for Gaza from Amman.

Meghan in taupe funnel-neck jacket descending steps with prince harry with people behind them© PA Images via Getty Images
Royal expert Russell Myers believes the Sussexes are ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t

Russell branded the criticism levied towards the pair, who have raised eyebrows with the visit due to their status as non-working royals, as “largely unfair”, revealing that people should consider the bigger picture and their important mission.

He elaborated: “I think some of the criticism is largely unfair. They are there with the World Health Organisation. They’re not there economically and they’re not there to promote a Netflix series.

“Maybe they are. I mean, I don’t know if they’ve got a camera crew following them. Perhaps they are, but what they are doing is they are still using their profile for public good. So I think people need to calm down a little bit.”