Over three and a half years later, the royal family apparently decided this was the week to remove the HRH (in this case, His Royal Highness) styling from Prince Harry’s page on the royal family website—but we shouldn’t read too much into it: Page Six reports that King Charles will never strip Harry or Meghan Markle of their HRH or Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles. (The change on the website likely reflects the wishes of Harry and Meghan themselves, who, since stepping back as working members of the royal family in 2020, prefer to not use the styling.)
Royal expert Robert Jobson said a source close to the Palace told him the King will never take the couple’s titles away, which were given as a gift from the late Queen Elizabeth upon their wedding day in 2018. Jobson said that even if Meghan became president of the United States, her title being removed is “just not going to happen.”
“I was at Royal Ascot the other day and I met a source, who is quite close to the royal family,” Jobson told The Daily Express. “I said, ‘Well, what about all this stuff about stripping titles? If you’re going to have a President Meghan, then surely they’re not going to want to have their royal titles and they will be kicked out of the line of succession?’ I asked. And he absolutely, categorically said that’s just not going to happen.” (Jobson is referring to the persistent rumor that Meghan wants to run for President of the United States someday, which has never been confirmed.)
Of Sussex detractors’ persistent demands that Harry and Meghan be stripped of their titles, maybe it’s time to just let it go already—“The reality is there’s no point, they say, in changing that,” Jobson said of the King’s apparent feelings on the matter, and why the titles will stay. “It’s definitely very unlikely that Harry will ever be King, so why play a problem?”
The detractors have certainly noticed this week that Harry’s HRH styling is now gone, which happened shortly after The Daily Express called the royal family out on it still being on his biography page twice. The website also heeded the outlet’s correction that Harry is, in fact, no longer the youngest son of the Prince of Wales, as he was previously described—that would be Prince Louis now. Similarly, up until recently, the new (ish—it’s been 11 months today) Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine, were still listed as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Page Six reports.
And, though Harry’s HRH stylings were up as recently as this week, The Daily Mail reports that Meghan’s stylings were removed three years ago on her official biography.
“The royal family website contains over 5,000 pages of information about the life and work of the royal family,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said in result to the errors on the site. “Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically. Some content may be out of date until this process is complete.”
Harry and Meghan are just fine, by the way—Harry touched down in Tokyo for a business trip en route to Singapore, where he will attend a polo tournament for his charity, Sentebale; Meghan, for her part, went to the Taylor Swift Eras tour stop in L.A. last night, where, according to People, she “jumped up out of her chair to sing along to ‘You Belong with Me.’” As one should!
