Prince Harry’s title has received a low-key update by the palace three years after a major royal decision was made.
- The Duke of Sussex had apparently been referred to as His Royal Highness several times on his profile on the Royal Family website since stepping back from royal life.
- Now the website reads simply “The Duke” in these instances, three years after the palace confirmed that he and Meghan wouldn’t use HRH titles any longer.
- This royal news comes as we revealed the rare role held by Princess Beatrice and Queen Camilla that sets them apart from their fellow royals.
Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “stepped back” as working members of the Royal Family in 2020 the couple have gone on to launch new projects, though they’ve had to relinquish many prestigious roles. The Duke of Sussex no longer holds his honorary military titles and many of his and the Duchess of Sussex’ patronages have been redistributed to working royals. Amidst all these big changes they’ve remained the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - the titles bestowed upon them by Queen Elizabeth at the time of their Windsor Castle wedding in 2018.
But it’s now been reported that Prince Harry’s title has now been updated on the Royal Family website - three years after a major decision regarding his future usage of this title was announced.
According to the Daily Mail, Prince Harry’s personal profile page on the website formerly still referred to him several times as His Royal Highness. The publication has claimed that since 4th August, this has been subtly updated and now apparently these instances read “The Duke” now.
It’s alleged that a specific example of this concerns a section regarding Prince Harry’s decision to undergo a public HIV test at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in order to raise awareness and show how easily people can be tested.
Now this begins, “In 2016, The Duke”, but supposedly was, “In 2016, His Royal Highness” before. The reported updating of Prince Harry’s title might come as a surprise to some given that Meghan’s was said to have changed from Her Royal Highness three years ago.
Buckingham Palace confirmed at the time that Prince Harry and Meghan wouldn’t be continuing to hold the positions of full time working royals and that whilst they kept their HRH titles, they wouldn’t be actively using them going forwards.
“The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family,” the palace statement declared.
Although Prince Harry’s title has only recently been changed in some places on the Royal Family website, the site itself has a huge number of pages filled with information about the immediate and extended Royal Family. This likely makes keeping every single one of these pages up-to-date at all times after big changes somewhat challenging.
Since settling in their Santa Barbara home, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t been using their HRH titles and sometimes simply refer to themselves as simply “Harry and Meghan”, as they did in the introductory trailer for their podcast. Royal titles remain part of their lives, however, and earlier this year their children were officially confirmed as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet on the royal line of succession page on the royal website.
“The children’s titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch,” a Sussex spokesperson declared. “This matter has been settled for some time in alignment with Buckingham Palace.”
