Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Children Officially Get New Royal Titles
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The Sussexes first announced the news indirectly with the announcement of their daughter's christening.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's children officially have the royal titles Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet—and Buckingham Palace finally updated the royal website to show it.
The line of succession on the royal family's website previously listed Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 1, as "Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor" and "Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor."
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A rep for the Sussexes told PEOPLE, "The children's titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch. This matter has been settled for some time in alignment with Buckingham Palace."
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King George V issued a 1917 Letters Patent regarding royal titles that read in part, "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."
Harry and Meghan previously alluded to the title change when a spokesperson for the couple announced details of Lilibet's christening, telling PEOPLE, "I can confirm that Princess Lilibet was christened on Friday, March 3 by the bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, the Rev John Taylor."
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During their March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan claimed that there were questions about their children's royal titles raised before Archie was born.
"They were saying they didn't want him to be a prince or princess, which would be different from protocol, and that he wasn't going to receive security," Meghan said during the infamous sitdown. "This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I was going, 'Hold on for a second.'"
Meghan said she would have wanted a title for Archie at the time because it would grant him security, adding, "It's not our decision to make. Even though I have a lot of clarity of what comes with the titles good and bad ... that is their birthright to then make a choice about."
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When Archie was born in May 2019, Queen Elizabeth II was in power, which made him the great-grandchild, not the grandchild, of the monarch—meaning granting him a title at the time actually would have been different from typical royal protocol in accordance with the Letters Patent.
The Queen offered Archie the courtesy title of Earl of Dumbarton at the time, which the Sussexes declined.
