During Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah on Sunday night, the Duchess of Sussex expressed her dismay that Archie would not be given the title of prince, and therefore would not have security protection like other members of the royal family.
“The idea of our son not being safe, and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be. You know, the other piece of that conversation is, there’s a convention– I forget if it was George V or George VI convention– that when you’re the grandchild of the monarch– so when Harry’s dad becomes king– automatically Archie and our next baby would become prince or princess, or whatever they were going to be,” Meghan said.
But what does the convention say? We’re breaking down the details of exactly what title Archie could have been given.
According to George V’s Letters Patent of 1917, “The grandchildren of the sons of any such sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of dukes of this realm.”
This means that Archie would have a right to a royal title, but only when his grandfather, Prince Charles, accedes to the throne. At that time, he could be an HRH or a prince.
According to the rules, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s oldest son, George, would be deemed a prince despite being the Queen’s great-grandchild, due to the fact that he’s in the direct line of succession to the throne. The Queen also issued a Letters Patent before George’s birth to guarantee George and all his siblings would have appropriate royal titles.
“The Queen could have made the same decision for the children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” royal expert Craig Prescott told MailOnline.
Meghan made it clear during her interview with Oprah that Archie’s title wasn’t her priority—his protection was. “All the grandeur surrounding this stuff is an attachment I don’t have,” she said. “I’ve been a waitress, an actress, a princess, a duchess. I’m clear on who I am, independent of that stuff. The most important title I will ever have is ‘Mom.’”
Meghan Markle’s Cutest Mom Moment With Archie
View Gallery“In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time– so we have in tandem 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,” Meghan said.
Meghan and Harry declined to specify who made comments about Archie’s possible skin tone, but Oprah revealed Monday on CBS This Morning that Harry told her the statements didn’t come from his grandmother Queen Elizabeth or his grandfather Prince Philip.