Archie and Lilibet Will Have Royal Titles, After All
Update June 9, 2021: Archie and Lilibet will have royal titles, but it'll take time. According to People, both of the Sussex children will have prince and princess titles as soon as Prince Charles ascends to the throne. Currently, the great-grandchildren of the queen are not officially princes or princesses, except for one very specific set of individuals: the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. That's why Prince William and Kate Middleton's children are Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis.
When Prince Charles takes the throne, Archie and Lili will be the "children of a son of the king," offering the titles that come with that distinction. The rules date back to a Letters Patent issued by King George V in 1917 that read: "… 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 these our realms."
"As the grandchildren of the Sovereign, they have the right to be upgraded to the style of His or Her Royal Highness. But that begs a question of whether Harry and Meghan want that," Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty, previously told People.
Previously: It's been two months since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's sit-down with Oprah, and the internet is still reeling over many of the bombshell claims they made against the royal family in the interview. Of the revelations, the couple said the monarchy refused to give their son, Archie, a prince title and denied him security, implying the reason was due to concerns over his skin color. But as it turns out, the drama surrounding the situation might have been a huge misunderstanding.
According to biographer Omid Scobie, there's a chance that Meghan was "wrong" about the protocol regarding royal titles, and that Archie wasn't intentionally being treated differently than his cousins. More than a century ago, King George V issued a written order stating that only royal children who are in the direct line of succession to the throne — meaning Queen Elizabeth's grandchildren and the eldest grandchild of Prince Charles — could be made a prince or princess and receive HRH titles.
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"If we are only going by what Meghan said to Oprah and what the palace have said so far about the situation with Archie, perhaps one can assume that Meghan was wrong in her interpretation of it," Scobie said in an interview for the new documentary, Harry and Meghan: Recollections May Vary.
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He added, "But we also know that there is much more this story that we don't know about."
During her discussion with Oprah, Meghan said she only wanted Archie to have a title for safety reasons. "If it meant he was going to be safe, of course," she said of her desire for him to be a prince. "All the grandeur around this stuff is an attachment I don't have…the most important title I will ever have is mom."
