How a royal rule will determine if Meghan and Harry’s baby is a prince or princess

MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry’s first child isn’t just a royal baby - it’s a huge moment in history for the British monarchy.

A ROYAL baby is always big news - but the announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first child is even more significant.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are currently in Sydney, announced on Monday that they are expecting a baby in the British spring next year, ending days of speculation.

Their baby will be one of the first ever mixed-race heirs born into the British royal family (Queen Charlotte in the 1800s was also believed to have been of mixed race, and had 15 children).

Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, is African-American, while her father, Thomas Markle, is white.

Meghan and her mother Doria. Photo: Steve Parsons - Pool/Getty Images

The Duchess has already broken new ground for a senior royal. She is American, mixed-race, catholic and is also divorced. After her lavish wedding in may, royal watchers told news.com.au she would be seen as the secret weapon for the monarchy’s bid to modernise itself.

Writer and royal expert Stephen Bates said: “Maybe they don’t change as quickly as other institutions, but the idea that a divorced American of mixed race who has a professional career would marry into the royal family would have been inconceivable only 20 years ago. So I think that’s great.”

Bates said Meghan “broadens the gene ”.

“She brings a different perspective and also a different appearance, beyond the obvious, to the Royal Family. She is bound to make them appear less stuffy and to inject different ideas into their gene pool. I think it’s very good for the monarchy,” he said.

In an essay for Elle in 2015, the Duchess discussed how she’d come to “embrace” her heritage.

“While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that.

“To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman. That when asked to choose my ethnicity in a questionnaire as in my seventh grade class, or these days to check ‘Other,’ I simply say: ‘Sorry, world, this is not Lost and I am not one of The Others. I am enough exactly as I am.’”

The baby will be seventh in line to the throne - as Harry is the sixth - meaning it’s unlikely either would ever be the monarch.

It’s uncertain whether or not the child will inherit a prince of princess title - as it all comes down to whether or not the Queen approves it.

Meghan and Harry’s children would instead be given the title of Lord or Lady, taking the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

According to the peerage guide, Debrett’s, the eldest son and heir apparent of a duke can use one of his father’s lesser grade peerage titles by courtesy,

So a first son of Harry’s would become Earl of Dumbarton — one of the subsidiary titles Harry received from the Queen on the morning of his wedding.

A daughter would be Lady Mountbatten-Windsor, and any subsequent sons Lord Mountbatten-Windsor.

Harry and Meghan were made the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their wedding day by the Queen.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in Australia for the Invictus Games

The rules regarding titles were limited by King George V – Harry’s great great grandfather – in 1917. That ruling said HRH titles were restricted to the Monarch, the Monarch’s children and grandchildren and the Monarch’s eldest-born’s first grandson.

But under those rules only Prince George could have legally been called a Prince, while Charlotte and Louis would be Lady Charlotte Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Louis Mountbatten-Windsor.

An intervention by the Queen in 2012, a year after the marriage of Kate and William, allowed all children of William and Kate – who are her great-grandchildren – to take the Prince or Princess titles too.

The Queen could decide if Meghan Markle’s baby is a Prince or Princess.

Meghan and Harry’s child will most likely take the surname Sussex when they go to school, just as Prince William’s children have taken his title Cambridge as their surname.

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