\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPrince Harry and Meghan Markle explored changing their family name to Spencer during delays in securing UK passports for their children Archie and Lilibet, it has emerged.<\/p>\n
In a move likely to have deepened the couple\u2019s rift with the royal family, it is understood that the Duke of Sussex held a meeting with his uncle Earl Spencer to discuss changing their family\u2019s surname. <\/p>\n
After stepping back from their duties as senior royals, the Sussexes moved to California in June 2020, with their daughter Lilibet born the following year. <\/p>\n
While their children\u2019s surnames are noted as Mountbatten-Windsor on their birth certificates \u2013 inherited from the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip \u2013 Harry and Meghan were given their Sussex titles by the late monarch on their wedding day in 2018.<\/p>\n
The family have since publicly begun to use Sussex as their surname, and it has now been reported that they applied for UK passports for Archie and Lilibet \u2013 aged six and four \u2013 using the Sussex name, along with the titles HRH (His\/Her Royal Highness).<\/p>\n
But with their application having waited months without approval, a source told The Guardian<\/em> that Harry and Meghan feared the delays were due to a reluctance to grant their children the HRH titles, prompting the duke to seek out his uncle for advice.<\/p>\nThe source was quoted as saying: \u201cHarry was at a point where British passports for his children with their updated Sussex surnames (since the death of Queen Elizabeth II) were being blocked with a string of excuses over the course of five months.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of sheer exasperation he went to his uncle to effectively say: \u2018My family are supposed to have the same name and they\u2019re stopping that from happening because the kids are legally HRH, so if push comes to shove, if this blows up and they won\u2019t let the kids be called Sussex, then can we use Spencer as a surname?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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Earl Spencer is greeted by his nephews Prince William and Prince Harry at an unveiling of a statue of Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace on 1 July 2021 (Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWhile the Mail on Sunday<\/em> reported last week that Earl Spencer \u2013 the brother of Harry\u2019s late mother, Princess Diana \u2013 had advised him against taking such a step, warning of \u201cinsurmountable\u201d legal hurdles, a source close to the couple strongly denied this version of events, and The Guardian<\/em> reported that Earl Spencer had been enthusiastic and supportive of the name change.<\/p>\nHowever, the discussion over a possible move to adopt Diana\u2019s birth name was shelved once the passport applications were approved just days after the Sussexes\u2019 lawyers threatened to pursue a data subject access request, according to The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\nArchie and Lilibet are named on the royal family website\u2019s succession page as sixth and seventh in line to the throne, and are listed as the Prince and Princess of Sussex respectively, titles they gained the right to when their grandfather Charles assumed the throne.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said that, as a rule, they do not comment on private issues pertaining to the duke and duchess\u2019s children.<\/p>\n
Buckingham Palace was also approached for comment.<\/p>\n
The revelations come just weeks after Harry lost his legal challenge against the Home Office over his UK security arrangements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Prince Harry and Meghan Markle explored changing their family name to Spencer during delays in securing UK passports for their children Archie and Lilibet, it has emerged. In a move likely to have deepened the couple\u2019s rift with the royal family, it is understood that the Duke of Sussex held a meeting with his uncle Earl Spencer to discuss changing their family\u2019s surname. After stepping back from their duties as senior royals, the Sussexes moved to California in June 2020, with their daughter Lilibet born the following year. While their children\u2019s surnames are noted as Mountbatten-Windsor on their birth certificates \u2013 inherited from the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip \u2013 Harry and Meghan were given their Sussex titles by the late monarch on their wedding day in 2018. The family have since publicly begun to use Sussex as their surname, and it has now been reported that they applied for UK passports for Archie and Lilibet \u2013 aged six and four \u2013 using the Sussex name, along with the titles HRH (His\/Her Royal Hig…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}