This is the British royal tradition that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have broken after 64 years
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have broken with long-standing tradition by changing their children’s surnames on a royal website they have just launched.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have launched a new-look website for their family that replaced the one they instituted last year, and one of the changes noticed by fans of the royals is that of their children’s surnames.
The website sussex.com shows that the couple’s children, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie, now carry the surname Sussex instead of Mountbatten-Windsor. The children have been using the surname since the coronation of King Charles III.
READ ALSO: Wills and Kate offer rare glimpse of home life
This is the British royal tradition that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have ended after 64 years
The Privy Council decreed the surname Mountbatten-Windsor in 1960, to apply to male-line descendants of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The council is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign.
The change in the young royals’ names thus ended a 64-year-old tradition of bearing this surname without royal styles and titles.
When Archie and Lilibet were born, they were not given the titles of “prince” and “princess” because they were not yet grandchildren of the monarch. Their status changed when King Charles was crowned.
The homepage describes the site as “The Office of Prince Harry & Meghan, The Duke & Duchess of Sussex”, which it says “is shaping the future through business and philanthropy.”
The website features detailed biographies of the couple, with Prince Harry’s describing him as “a humanitarian, military veteran, mental health advocate, and environmental campaigner.” Meghan’s bio starts by saying that “The Duchess of Sussex is a feminist and champion of human rights and gender equity.”
Both of their biographies say that they live in California with “their two children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.”