Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Get a Rare Victory in Royal Family Spat

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Get a Rare Victory in Royal Family Spat,The couple never lost the legal right to some of their most prestigious royal titles - though that doesn't mean they'll start using them again any time soon.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Get a Rare Victory in Royal Family Spat

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle won a surprising symbolic victory with the royal family this week, as they were told they could still use the honorific titles “His Royal Highness” and “Her Royal Highness,” or “HRH.” The HRH prefixes were removed from Markle and Prince Harry’s names on the Buckingham Palace website back in 2020, and monarchy officials announced that they would stop using those titles after stepping down from full-time royal duties. Last week, royal expert Ephraim Hardcastle wrote an op-ed for The Daily Mail explaining why those titles are still valid.

When Prince Harry and Markle stepped down as “working royals” and moved to the U.S. in 2020, Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying: “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family.” However, last week Ephraim explained that that is not how those titles work. The title “HRH” is legally conferred on members of the royal family through documents called “Letters Patent,” and they need to be annulled for the title to be taken away. Queen Elizabeth II did not annul those documents and insiders said that King Charles III has no intention of doing so either. That means Prince Harry and Markle are still well within their rights to use those titles if they wish.

Ephraim summarized the legal framework for these titles in laymen’s terms that showed how much their usage has changed and fluctuated over the years. The current rules for “HRH” titles were laid down by King George V in 1917, but even those have not been followed closely. For example, the king’s great aunt and uncle Prince and Princess Michael of Kent use the “HRH” honorifics, as do his nieces Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

While Ephraim has heard that the king does not intend to have the Letters Patent annulled, it’s not clear how he would feel about Prince Harry and Markle resuming the use of their honorifics at this point. There has been no indication that the Sussexes want to use those titles either, and there’s a chance that they might refrain from doing so for their own reasons.

The king has made efforts to consolidate the royal family – especially in terms of financial responsibility. In terms of titles, the king is still handing out some new ones to working royals, but Prince Harry and Markle are not likely to make that list. So far, neither he nor the Sussexes have commented publicly on Ephraim’s article.

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