Prince Harry Apparently Wants Archie and Lilibet to Have the Option of Becoming Working Royals
This is juicier than any soap opera.
Key Points
- Prince Harry apparently wants to leave the door open for his kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to possibly be working royals someday, should they choose to do so.
- A new report explores Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to use Archie and Lilibet’s prince and princess titles and HRH statuses.
- It also explains that their U.K. passports may have been delayed amid a reluctance to put their HRH titles and Sussex surname on them.
Five years after stepping back as working members of the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle still retain their HRH titles (shorthand for His or Her Royal Highness), and, while they don’t use them publicly, have used them privately, as came out earlier this year.
Harry and Meghan’s kids, 6-year-old Prince Archie and 4-year-old Princess Lilibet , also have HRH titles, and, according to Town & Country , the Duke of Sussex wants to leave the option open for his kids to become working royals themselves someday, should they choose to do so.
A new report in The Guardian details Harry’s efforts to get U.K. passports for Archie and Lilibet, with the surname Sussex (as Meghan has expressed the desire to use for herself, as well) and the HRH titles as well. Archie’s passport, for example, was originally issued as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor (the surname the larger royal family uses) upon his birth in 2019, but after Archie’s grandfather King Charles took the throne in 2022, he and Lilibet became entitled to use prince and princess titles. Harry and Meghan first expressed their intent to use said titles in March 2023, six months after Charles became King, on the occasion of Lilibet's christening. “The children’s titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch,” a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said at the time.
There was a delay in issuing U.K. passports for Archie and Lilibet and “There was clear reluctance to issue passports for the kids,” a source “close to the Sussexes” told The Guardian , with the insider adding that “the King hadn’t wanted Archie and Lili to carry the titles, most of all the HRH, and the British passports, once created, would be the first and perhaps the only legal proof of their names.”
The Guardian reported that Harry “wants to keep the HRH titles for his children so that when they grow older they can decide for themselves whether they want to become working royals or stay out of public life.”
As far back as the volatile Sandringham Summit in early 2020, Buckingham Palace said that “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.” That said, at least Meghan still uses her HRH title in a private capacity. The Guardian also reported that Harry and Meghan considered changing their surname to Spencer before landing on Sussex, which the outlet said stemmed from “sheer exasperation” on Harry’s part. After speaking about the matter with his uncle Earl Charles Spencer— Princess Diana ’s younger brother—though he was “enthusiastic and supportive of the name change,” he advised against doing so because of legal reasons, and Harry and Meghan chose Sussex instead, reflective of their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles given to them by Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of their 2018 wedding.
“Harry was at a point where British passports for his children with their updated Sussex surnames were being blocked with a string of excuses over the course of five months,” a source speaking to The Guardian said.
Per People , the passports for Archie and Lilibet eventually arrived nearly six months after the initial application; for context, standard processing time is typically around three weeks. The passports arrived “shortly after the Sussexes’ lawyers wrote to the U.K. Home Office, threatening to file a data subject access request—a legal move that could have revealed internal discussions or decisions behind the delay,” People reported.
Read the original article on Single Sparkle
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