Despite their step back in January 2020 as working members of the royal family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have retained their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, bestowed upon them by Her late Majesty on their wedding day, May 19, 2018. (Though their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, did not use formal titles until March of this year, their parents referred to their titles as their “birthright,” and the royal family then updated their names on its website from Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor to Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex.)
When Harry’s father, King Charles, is crowned at the Coronation on May 6, does anything change as far as Harry and Meghan’s titles? Royal expert Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III, tells Marie Claire exclusively that nothing will change in this regard: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will retain their titles, as will Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet,” he says. “Even though the King did not officially bestow these titles on Archie and Lili, as grandchildren of the monarch, they are automatically entitled to them. The children don’t have royal HRH [His or Her Royal Highness] status yet, however, and, given the strained relationship between the Sussexes and the rest of the royals, there doesn’t seem to be much of an appetite for giving it to them.”
Harry will be in attendance at the Coronation at Westminster Abbey in London; as Marie Claire previously reported, Meghan has opted to stay behind with the children at the Sussex home base in California, as May 6 also coincidentally happens to be Archie’s fourth birthday.
“I think Harry and Meghan have hit their peak when it comes to inheriting titles,” says Kinsey Schofield, host of “To Di for Daily” podcast, speaking to Marie Claire exclusively. “I really don’t see the King ever taking their titles away unless it becomes an act of Parliament and they pursue that with a vengeance or feels like something is in jeopardy for them. I don’t think they’ll ever lose their titles, to be honest.”
Rachel Bowie, cohost of Royally Obsessed, a Gallery Media Group podcast, echoes that sentiment: “I don’t see them being stripped of their titles, which everyone continues to call for,” she says.
If you're currently outside the U.K., you can use a VPN like ExpressVPN—which has a 30-day free trial—to watch the coronation live on the BBC, which aired Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.
