Meghan Markle ‘risked her reputation’ supporting Prince Harry amid ESPYs backlash: expert

Meghan Markle took a risk supporting Prince Harry at the 2024 ESPY Awards earlier this month.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service at the July 11 ceremony for his military experience and work on the Invictus Games after many, including Pat’s own mother, felt that Harry wasn’t deserving of the honor.

Despite the backlash, Markle, 42, still showed up to the event and supported her husband — which Jack Royston, the chief royal correspondent at Newsweek, believes was a risky move,

“She clapped for Harry, and she was there in the audience,” Royston said on the July 17 episode of “The Royal Report” podcast. “She could have tried to stay home and let Harry kind of step into the fire, step into the furnace alone.”

He added: “But she chose to be there for her husband, and she kind of risked putting her own neck on the line and her own reputation on the table to make sure he didn’t face an uncertain crowd alone.”

The former “Suits” actress sat next to Harry and cheered for him when he went on stage to accept the award at the Los Angeles ceremony. She looked on proudly during Harry’s speech, during which he said the award “belongs” to the thousands of veterans and service personnel involved in the Invictus Games, rather than him.

Royston noted that it would have “looked very bizarre if Meghan hadn’t gone” to the ESPYs since her close friend, Serena Williams, hosted the event.

“It would have looked very kind of out of place if, you know, if one of your best friends was hosting and your husband’s collecting an award for you to stay home,” the royal expert said.

He went on, “You would have to think that it would look deliberate for people, so there was no neutral option for her. She had to choose to stand with Harry or choose to abandon him. But you know clearly, both from a PR point of view and from a marital health point of view, I think it’s very good that she chose to stand by him.”

The Post reached out to Meghan and Harry’s reps for comment.

The announcement that Harry was receiving the Pat Tillman Award for Service didn’t sit right with many, including Mary Tillman, who slammed ESPN and claimed she was never consulted about the decision to give the award to such a “controversial and divisive individual.”

Pat, a former safety for the Arizona Cardinals, served in Iraq and then Afghanistan before he was killed by friendly fire in 2004, with the soldier posthumously awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his service.

ESPN defended its decision to honor Harry, saying his co-founding the Invictus Games and continued work as a patron of the organization “is a cause worth celebrating.”

The father of two, who quit royal life in 2020, was reportedly left “stunned” and “quite sad” over the backlash.

He reportedly considered declining the award ahead of the ceremony.

“He’d never want to cause any upset,” former royal butler Grant Harrold exclusively told The Post.

“If he thinks that it is going to cause upset, then it is quite likely that he could decline the award . . . because he’d never want to cause any upset and it would affect him hearing about the backlash,” Harrold added.

However, Harry accepted the award and in his speech he acknowledged Pat’s mother, who was in the audience at the Dolby Theater.

“The bond between a mother and son is eternal and transcends even the greatest losses,” he said, referring to the 1997 death of his own mother, Princess Diana, when he was just 12 years old.

Harry launched the Invictus Games in 2014 as multi-sport Paralympic-styled games for wounded or injured servicemen and veterans. He also served in the British armed forces for 10 years, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot and a forward air controller.