Royal Expert Says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Using HRH Titles Again Isn’t ‘Impossible’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle addressed as His and Her Royal Highness again? A royal expert says a return to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s HRH titles isn’t “impossible.” However, things would have to change for King Charles III to extend the “most extraordinary olive branch.”
Royal expert says Harry and Meghan would have to do a ‘360-turn’ to regain use of their HRH titles
Author and royal expert Katie Nicholl posed one of the many questions swirling after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. “Is there any chance that Harry and Meghan might be given their HRH titles back?” she asked. Entertainment Tonight via Express.
When Harry and Meghan “stepped back” from their working royal roles in 2020, they did so under a few conditions. One of them being that they’d no longer use their HRH titles.
According to Nicholl, it’s not an “impossible” scenario for the couple.
“It wouldn’t be impossible to get back those HRH titles,” she said. However, it’d require change and lots of it. “It would take an absolute 360-turn on Meghan and Harry’s part to give up all of the commercial work and come back as fully-fledged members of the firm.”
“I think there’s probably too much water under the bridge for that to happen,” Nicholl added.
A shift toward a ‘streamlined monarchy’ could mean no titles for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children
Titles for Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie Harrison and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, may be impacted by their grandfather’s desire for a “streamlined monarchy.”
“We all know Charles has long wanted a streamlined monarchy,” Nicholl told Palace Confidential.
“The constitutional experts I have spoken to saw this pattern of the British monarchy moving more into a sort of European style royalty,” she said. “If that is the case, then possibly they’re [Archie and Lilibet] not going to get these titles.”
“One thing we know is that titles matter to Charles; it was important to him that Queen Consort Camilla had that title. We don’t know what’s going to happen about the Duke of Edinburgh title and we don’t know if he’s going to give it to Archie and Lilibet.”
“It would be the most extraordinary olive branch and act of reconciliation if he did, but I think if that happens, it’s going to come with a caveat,” she continued. “He’s going to insist that Harry and Meghan are respectful of the institution if they are taking the titles of the institution.”
HRH titles come with security, a ‘key’ issue for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
At play alongside Harry and Meghan’s HRH titles is security. Particularly, for Archie and Lili, which Nicholl described as “one of the key issues” for the parents of two.
Harry and Meghan very much want a below-the-radar lifestyle for their children,” she told Entertainment Tonight, noting that security’s part of it.
Meghan discussed Archie not getting security in her and Harry’s March 2021 Oprah interview.
Security “comes with being an HRH,” Nicholl said. “It means that every time Harry and Meghan come over here with their children, they get taxpayer-funded royal protection security.”
Meanwhile, Harry is pushing for the opportunity to be able to pay for security in U.K. courts.
