The glaring reason why those in royal circles are so ‘bemused’ Harry and Meghan are desperate to keep their children’s official titles

Since the Sussexes’ dramatic exit from the Royal Family, they have devoted a lot of time and energy to publicising their unhappiness with royal life.

It’s hard to forget Harry’s grin on a video recording as he described their so-called ‘freedom flight’ to Los Angeles when they began their American adventure in 2020.

And the title of their sycophantic biography by journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand that year was, of course, Finding Freedom.

During their notorious interview with Oprah, Meghan said the pressure of being a working royal was so intolerable that it drove her to thoughts of suicide. 

She said she had been the victim of ‘character assassination’ and that the pressure led her to the point of self-harm.

‘I just didn’t want to be alive any more,’ an emotional-looking Meghan said – while cameras surrounded her from every angle.

So, with all of that in mind, why do Harry and Meghan now seemingly want to leave the door open for their children to one day return to the gilded cage of royal life? 

One source close to the couple recently told the Guardian: ‘Prince 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.’

But while the story raised eyebrows with the public, perhaps those most surprised were those in royal circles themselves.

According to The Sunday Times, the quote left royal insiders ‘bemused’ for one glaring reason.

Harry seems not to realise that it will most likely not be his kindly 76-year-old father, who is widely seen as the most forgiving in the family, who will be on the throne by the time Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, reach adulthood.

Instead, the keys to The Firm will by then have been passed down to his long-estranged brother William.

The paper’s royal sources say the chances of William finding working royal roles for this nephew and niece are remote.

It should be of no surprise, as although William and Harry were once the closest of kin they have not seen or spoken to each other since their grandmother’s funeral in September 2022.

Harry’s most recent interview with the BBC, in which he claimed he would ‘love a reconciliation with my family’ while still firing thinly veiled insults at them, has done little to repair the wound.

The delusional Prince seems to have no idea that any bridge that could have led him back to the Royal Family is now completely burnt.

A friend of the Prince of Wales told the paper that although William initially raged at his brother’s outbursts, especially after the publication of Spare in January 2023, there has been a recent ‘shift’.

As opposed to anger, William’s main emotion now towards his brother is ‘indifference’.

Although it has been a tough few years, the turmoil caused by Harry’s outbursts no longer plagues him.

So it seems unlikely that William would open himself up to be hurt again by welcoming back his brother’s children when they are adults.

Archie and Lilibet are far more likely to spend their lives in the lap of luxury in the celebrity enclave of Montecito in California – far away from their royal heritage.  

But despite the slim chances of Archie and Lilibet one day cutting ribbons and attending village fetes as working royals, Harry and Megan are still keen to make sure they get stamped with all of their royal titles.

In June the Guardian reported the Sussexes had become ‘exasperated’ about waiting months for their children’s passports to arrive and believed it was being ‘blocked’ due to the use of their royal titles.

They thought the application would take weeks and suspected it was because they wanted HRH on Archie and Lilibet’s British travel documents.

‘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’, a source close to the couple reportedly told the paper.

However, Buckingham Palace rejected the claims the King or any of his staff intervened.

The couple reportedly asked their lawyers to write to the HM Passport Office threatening to pursue a data subject access request relating to Archie and Lilibet’s applications.

Days later the two passports were reportedly promptly issued with HRH titles and Sussex as the new surname.

The alleged spat is only the latest in a long history of arguments surrounding the titles of Archie and Lilibet.

During the Oprah interview, Meghan suggested that Archie had been denied his birthright of the title ‘prince’ by the Palace and that the decision went against protocol.

She spoke of her shock at being told he would not get police protection because he did not have a title, and suggested that the decision was taken because of his mixed race.

‘It’s not their right to take away,’ Meghan said. Asked by Ms Winfrey, ‘Do you think it’s because of his race?’, the Duchess replied: ‘In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we [had] the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title. 

‘And, also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.’

At the time the claims caused shock and bewilderment at Buckingham Palace, with the late Queen subsequently publishing a statement including the memorable phrase, ‘some recollections may vary’.

The rules governing the titles of royal children were set out by George V – Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather – in 1917.

Archie and Lilibet were not prince and princess at birth, because they were not grandchildren of the monarch, but they gained the right to these titles when King Charles acceded to the throne.

The Sussexes used the title princess for their daughter, Lilibet, for the first time after her christening in California was announced in 2023.

A spokesman for the couple said: ‘The children’s titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch. This matter has been settled for some time in alignment with Buckingham Palace.’

The children were subsequently officially named as prince and princess on the Royal Family’s official line of succession page on its website.

The sixth and seventh in line to the throne were previously listed as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor.

As well as her children, Meghan has also been highly sensitive and protective around her own HRH title – despite her well-publicised disappointment with the institution of the monarchy.  

Despite her and Harry promising the Queen that they would not use the title after they emigrated to the US, in April MailOnline revealed she calls herself ‘Her Royal Highness’ to friends.

It sparked controversy after her friend Jamie Kern Lima shared a picture of a food hamper with a note that said it was ‘With the compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex’.

Although no laws were passed or documents signed to prevent their use, Harry and Meghan’s agreement with the late Queen and senior officials was that they would stop using the word ‘Royal’ and their HRH titles after they quit duties and emigrated to the US to become ‘financially independent’ from the Crown.

A spokesman for the Sussexes insisted that they do not use HRH titles for commercial purposes. 

Royal commentator Ingrid Seward commented to the Sun at the time: ‘I think if her late grandmother-in-law Queen Elizabeth was still around she would be highly offended, as she was very sensitive about that.’

After all, the Queen removed the HRH titles from both Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson after their divorces from her sons.

But perhaps most notable was the recent incident when Meghan insisted to a guest on her Netflix cookery programme that her surname is now Sussex.

She commented to the clearly confused comedian Mindy Kaling, ‘it’s so funny you keep saying ‘Meghan Markle’ – you know I’m Sussex now’.

The Duchess then added: ‘I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go “This is OUR family name. Our little family name”.’ 

It showed Meghan clearly still has strong feelings toward the name, which was a title given to them by the Queen on her wedding day to Harry, despite only having visited the county of Sussex once.

And although Archie and Lilibet will have have the name and title, it seems they won’t be getting a role in the Royal Family when they becomes adults.

Unless something drastic happens, all the signs are pointing to a future of King William keeping them at an arm’s distance across the Atlantic. 

Perhaps they will instead be roped into joining Meghan’s growing jam-selling empire. 

In June, the Duchess spoke about possibly running a company with her daughter, Princess Lilibet, in the future. 

‘I wonder if one day I’ll be in business with Lili and we’ll be building something,’ Meghan told Tina Knowles, mother of pop superstar Beyonce, on her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. 

By the sound of things, that would be the rest of the Royal Family’s preferred outcome too.