Prince Harry’s plan for kids’ future ‘makes no sense’, says royal expert

Harry and Meghan have reportedly hatched a ‘nonsense’ plan for their kids’ futures, a royal expert has claimed(Image: Getty Images)

The Sussex family may no longer be active as royals or carry out duties for the King Charles. But despite their controversial withdrawal from the royal family, they reportedly are open to their children playing their part in the monarchy.

Sources close to the Sussexes have said that the pair do in fact want Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who just turned four, to retain their royal titles, so they will be able to choose to become working royals if they want to when they reach adulthood. It comes after the source claimed Harry and Meghan feared passports for their children were being held up due to the use of their HRH titles.

It was claimed that the Sussexes were left frustrated as they waited months for British passports to arrive, and reportedly believed it was due to the fact they included their children’s royal titles on the application. But former BBC royal expert Jennie Bond has questioned why Harry and Meghan appear so keen to cling onto titles for their children – even though they have previously hit out against the institution of monarchy.

The expert told the Mirror: “I really don’t understand why, having extricated themselves from a life they did not enjoy and in which Harry has publicly spoken of ‘feeling trapped’, they want to give their children the option of re-joining. It makes no sense.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in the future? But it’s very hard to see how two children who are clearly now more American than British would want to change their whole way of life and become working members of the royal family.”

Archie and Lilibet were given prince and princess titles when their grandfather King Charles became monarch in 2022. The first time their titles were formally announced was after Lilibet’s christening in March 2023.

It is said that the passport delay caused Harry to approach the possibility of changing his family surname to Spencer in a nod to his late mother, Princess Diana.

And Jennie added: “I think Harry has always been more Spencer than Windsor, so if he was ever going to change his name, it would be to Spencer.

“But this would be a final nail in the coffin of his relationship with his father and his brother. It would amount to a public declaration that he no longer saw himself as part of the royal family.”

There has been continued controversy over the Sussexes’ HRH titles since the pair quit their royal roles five years ago.

Meghan and Harry no longer use their HRH titles(Image: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for TIME)

As part of their Megxit negotiations with the Palace, Meghan and the Duke of Sussex agreed to stop using “Her Royal Highness” and “His Royal Highness” at the end of March 2020.

They still retain the styles, with Harry having had his since birth, but they are essentially held in abeyance, and so are not in active use.

However, earlier this year, it emerged that Meghan had used her HRH style on a gift basket sent to make-up entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima last year, with a monogrammed card reading: “With Compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex”.

Kern Lima showed an image of the present in footage of her podcast interview with Meghan. It contained a jar of Meghan’s jam which she has started selling as part of her As Ever lifestyle business brand.

A source described the basket as a “personal gift”. The duchess’s representatives denied that the couple used their royal titles, but a source later said that the Sussexes did not use HRH publicly, but retained the style, and did not use it for commercial purposes.

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