Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, no longer use HRH titles following their decision to step back from official Royal Family duties
Harry and Meghan stepped back from official royal duties in 2020
In 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided to step away from official royal duties – and over the following years, this has often led to confusion over how the couple should be referred to.
Scott Moore, the CEO of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, revealed the surprising way he was told to address Meghan Markle. The advice he received was a far cry from the traditional form of address for a former senior Royal.
As detailed in Richard Eden’s column for the Daily Mail last year, Moore shared: “I did make sure to ask how I should be addressing them when they get here.” He was informed that a simple “‘Ma’am’ is fine.’ He was also told a simple ‘Sir’ was fine to address the Duke of Sussex.”
Typically, male members of the Royal Family are first addressed as ‘Your Royal Highness’, followed by ‘Sir’, while female members are referred to as ‘Your Royal Highness’, and then ‘Ma’am’.
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Harry addressed claims that he is miserable in a recent interview, insisting that he is “very happy”
However, after Harry and Meghan’s decision to step back as senior working royals in 2020, they were stripped of their HRH titles. This means they cannot be addressed as Your Royal Highness, but they can retain their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, reports Gloucestershire Live.
The choice for Prince Harry to be addressed with formal titles such as Sir and ‘Ma’am’ for Meghan Markle starkly contrasts his earlier stance in 2020. At that time, during a tourism conference in Edinburgh, Harry famously insisted on informality. Ayesha Hazarika, the event host, disclosed: “He’s made it clear that we are all just to call him Harry.”
Five-year-old Archie and three-year-old Lilibet have now taken ‘Sussex’ as their surname instead of Mountbatten-Windsor, breaking away from a Royal tradition established in 1960. This was when the Queen decreed that her male-line descendants would bear the Mountbatten-Windsor surname, following advice from her counsellors.
In an interview last week, Harry insisted that he did not regret his decision to publish details about his family in his autobiography, Spare. He told The Guardian: “My conscience is clear.”
Harry went on to say that he will “always love the UK” and refuted claims that he was unhappy with his life, explaining: “It is only in certain elements of the press where you see this talk about me being down or saying I am not smiling. This comes from people who think they know what I am thinking and how I am feeling. They are wrong.
“I think parts of the British press want to believe that I am miserable, but I’m not. I am very happy with who I am and I like the life that I live.”