The couple were allowed to keep their His/Her Royal Highness titles, but were no longer permitted to use them, and were permitted to keep their title of Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
SPRING 2020: ‘Just call me Harry’
Weeks later, at a sustainable tourism summit in Edinburgh, Prince Harry voiced an initial preference: ‘just call me Harry.’ It appeared to be a very much stripped-down title for a man christened Henry Charles Albert David of Wales.
MARCH 2021: Meghan discusses royal titles with Oprah
THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SUSSEX WITH OPRAH WINFREY
Harpo Productions / Joe Pugliese
During the explosive Oprah Winfrey interview, Meghan claimed that the institution of the monarchy didn’t want her children with Prince Harry to have a title, something she said she learned while she was pregnant with Archie. Speaking to the media mogul in an interview which sent shockwaves around the world, the Duchess said, ‘They were saying they didn’t want him to be a Prince or Princess, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn’t going to receive security.
‘This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I was going, hold on for a second. They said [he’s not going to get security], because he’s not going to be a Prince. Okay, well, he needs to be safe so we’re not saying don’t make him a Prince or Princess, but if you’re saying the title is what’s going to affect that protection, we haven’t created this monster machine around us in terms of clickbait and tabloid fodder you’ve allowed that to happen which means our son needs to be safe.’
JUNE 2021: The ‘Lilibet’ controversy
When Harry and Meghan named their daughter Lilibet Diana, eyebrows lifted from Sandringham to Santa Barbara. Lilibet was Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood nickname. The couple insisted they had her blessing, but sources would claim the monarch had not given her permission to the Duke and Duchess. According to MailOnline, the late Queen allegedly told an aide: ‘I don’t own the palaces, I don’t own the paintings, the only thing I own is my name. And now they’ve taken that.’ Lilibet’s birth certificate listed her name as Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, with the couple calling her ‘Lili’ for short.
SPRING 2022: Becoming Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet
When King Charles ascended the throne in 2022, Archie and Lilibet automatically became Prince and Princess, thanks to a letter patent from George V. The couple began using the titles of Prince and Princess for the children after Lilibet’s christening in 2023, and the royal website was updated accordingly.
MARCH 2025: ‘You know I’m Sussex now’
Meghan told Mindy Kaling that her name was Meghan Sussex, not Meghan Markle
JUSTIN COIT/NETFLIX