Why Prince Harry wants to ‘change his name’
Prince Harry’s shocking latest move has stunned the palace and created an even deeper rift with the royal family.
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All those centuries ago, Will ‘I Am’ Shakespeare put scratchy quill to parchment and gave us that habitually handy line, “a rose by another other name” blah, blah, blah.
According to him, a bloom, no matter what you it, smells just as nice, an adage that Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex appears to believe in too after it was claimed on Sunday that he considered changing his surname to Spencer.
The Daily Mail has reported that the duke “actively explored ways to assume” Princess Diana’s surname and went so far as to seek advice from her brother Earl Spencer however “was told that the legal hurdles were insurmountable.”
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“They had a very amicable conversation and [Earl] Spencer advised him against taking such a step,” a friend of Harry’s told the Mail.
Per the astonishing report, the duo had the tete-a-tete when the duke was back in the UK. Harry was previously reported to have stayed with his uncle at the Spencers ancestral seat of Althorp in August last year when he returned to Britain for his uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’ funeral.
Let’s get the obvious out of the road - if Harry had gone ahead with this it would have been a truly stunning slap in the face for his father King Charles. (It’s remarkable really - somehow, even after Oprah and Netflix and Spare, the duke is still coming up with new ways to even further publicly spurn the royal family.)
Still, even the very fact that Harry entertained the idea of dumping the surname available to members of the royal family - Mountbatten-Windsor - is genuinely shocking stuff.
At this rate he’ll be dying his signature ginger locks blonde to distance himself further from his former life.
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Of course, things have hardly been all warm and fuzzy between Harry and the King for years, with things so bad that His Majesty is unable to find even a spare ten minute window in his diary to make polite chit chat about the weather with his son.
In fact the entente is so far from cordiale that Harry’s calls to Charles, “go unanswered,” a friend of his somehow managed to let slip to People last year “He gets unavailable right now”.
Added to which there is also still the reportedly unhealed sore that was Harry’s decision to tell all in his 2023 memoir, in which he not only had go’s at his father and Prince William but included digs about Queen Camilla and Kate, The Princess of Wales too.
Forgiveness, from the Prince of Wales, per reports, could not be further from the cards.
However despite this complicated backstory, this name Spencer claim is astonishing.
Frosty relations and Whatsapp messages left unread are one thing but going to the legal extreme of changing your name is another.
If Harry had gone through with this it would have translated to him amputating himself, irrevocably, from the royal family.
(The necessary background bit: Mountbatten-Windsor is the name on the birth certificates of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, however there is also a convention to use one’s father’s title too.
That’s why William and Harry were known at school as ‘Wales’. In February 2024 it was reported that Harry, his wife Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex and their kids used ‘Sussex’.
In an episode of the duchess’ With Love Meghan she awkwardly corrected ‘friend’ Mindy Kaling after the comedian called her ‘Meghan Markle’.
Note, there will be a quiz on this at the end.)
What’s missing from the Mail’s bombshell Spencer story is the question of what this surname switcheroo would or could have meant for their royal titles. (At least they would not have to have any of their napkins or bespoke pickleball racquets re-monogrammed.)
If the duke went so far as to stump up the £50.32 required to change his name via UK deed poll, how could they have straight-faced kept calling themselves the Duke and Duchess of Sussex?
In this scenario the question is, would they have simply become plain old Harry and Meghan Spencer instead?
What is also unexplored in the Mail story are Meghan’s feelings about dumping her royal married name.
Given that recently the duchess has, twice, reminded the world she is still, technically, an HRH, it’s a tough sell to imagine her merrily binning her duchess title to be a bog standard Mrs.
You also have to wonder if the Duke of Sussex, a man who has proven to be a bust as a podcaster and TV producer, had considered the commercial implications of his Spencer plan? ‘Harry Spencer’ might smell as sweet to him - but what about when it comes to his money-making career?
Would coaching company BetterUp be just as happy to have ‘Harry Spencer’ as their Chief Impact Officer, a title and role that four years on remains as nebulous and detail-deficient as ever?
In late May, the Daily Mail reported that the duke is set to launch an “as-yet-undisclosed commercial venture in the next few months”.
Would ‘Harry Spencer’ have the same access to funding and connections and help as Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel?
And would ‘Meghan Spencer’ but have just as much of a booster in Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos who, another Mail report detailed, calls “the rock star”? (Sarandos, a well-placed source, told the paper the streaming boss “is a massive, massive fan of Meghan personally…He is all in.”)
Ponder, if you will, the existential question - who or what are Harry and Meghan as a brand and an enterprise without their royal identities?
As it is, even with ‘duke’ and ‘duchess’ still firmly slapped all over the shop, they are about to embark on an uncertain US next chapter.
They have moved on from their days of monetising their royal angst, handy since it’s positively old, tired hat now.
Unfortunately, their attempts to establish themselves in the entertainment industry have amounted to hits, misses and repeated claims they are, at times, about as easy to work for as Genghis Khan in a right mood.
Harry’s Heart of Invictus and Polo were both lavish productions that did about as well with audiences as a live stream of porridge cooling.
He never once managed to get a podcast idea across the line in the two and a half years the couple had a contract with Spotify.
Meghan has proven much more successful, turning her hand to investing, making a TV show that valiantly fought to make the case to put flower sprinkles on a frittata, and selling jars of fruit spreads for $21.70 a pop.
She also has entered influencer territory having launched a ShopMy account meaning she can monetise her impeccable style. (The woman truly knows her way around a fabulous neutral separate or 17 and a spot of Cartier.)
At least Ted Sarandos and whoever might be involved in Harry’s mystery commercial venture can rest easy knowing that the Sussexes’ name and titles are still firmly in place.
However, as they breathe deep sighs of relief, how must this Spencer news make Charles feel?
In the last four years he has lost his father, Prince Philip, his mother, the late Queen, and to a large degree one of his sons. And for Harry, he has left behind his homeland, his father, his brother, his military roles, a decent chunk of his raison être and his lifetime membership card to Annabel’s.
If anyone you know still has a quill, this level of family drama is such that it would be perfect for the stage of The Globe.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
Originally published as Why Prince Harry wants to ‘change his name’
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