Prince Harry’s Simple Explanation for Him and Meghan Markle Not Giving up Their Titles
TL;DR:
- Anderson Cooper asked Prince Harry why he and Meghan Markle don’t give up their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles in a Jan. 8 60 Minutes interview.
- “And what difference would that make?” Prince Harry replied.
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle still have their “His/Her Royal Highness” titles, although they don’t use them.
Prince Harry replied with a question when asked why he and Meghan Markle don’t give up their royal titles. Currently, the pair hold the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But, as Harry remarked in a Jan. 2022 interview, surrendering their titles may not do much.
Prince Harry suggested giving up titles won’t change anything on ‘60 Minutes’
On Jan. 8, two days before the release of his Spare memoir, Harry appeared on 60 Minutes. In a pre-recorded interview, he spoke with Anderson Cooper about everything from an alleged attack by Prince William to the royal family being like Game of Thrones.
At one point during the wide-ranging interview, the CNN anchor asked Harry about his and Meghan’s titles. “Why not renounce your titles as duke and duchess?” Cooper wondered. Harry replied, giving a simple reply in the form of another question: “And what difference would that make?”
Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in Sept. 2022 at the age of 96, gave Harry and Meghan their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles ahead of their May 2018 royal wedding (via CNN).
Harry’s title became His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkee. Meanwhile, Meghan became known formally as Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex.
Harry and Meghan stopped using their HRH titles when they stepped back from royal life in 2020
Although they gave up a number of honorary titles when they decided to “step back” from their roles as senior “working” royals in 2020, Harry and Meghan retained — and technically still have — HRH status.
HRH stands for “Her Royal Highness” and “His Royal Highness.” It’s a distinction the couple, who’ve lived in California since 2020, no longer use. The reason being not using their HRH titles was one of the conditions for their exit.
Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, 3, and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, 1, do not have any titles, HRH or otherwise.
Prince Harry doesn’t think a return to royal life will ever be a possibility
Despite having a piece of his previous royal life in the form of his title, Harry doesn’t see returning to England and doing work on behalf of the royal family. “I don’t think it’s ever gonna be possible,” he told Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan in the lead-up to Spare’s release (via ABC News).
“Even if there was an agreement or an arrangement between me and my family, there is that third party that is going to do everything they can to make sure that isn’t possible,” he said, presumably referring to the U.K. media and The Firm. “Not stopping us from actually going back, but making it unsurvivable.”
