King ‘can strip Sussexes of their titles’

Prince Harry inadvertently gave an opening for those who want to strip him and Meghan of their titles, a royal biographer believes.

King Charles III. Picture: Getty

Prince Harry inadvertently gave an opening in his documentary for those who want to strip him and Meghan of their titles as Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a royal biographer believes.

Pressure is growing for the couple to lose their titles following the release of the second tranche of three episodes of the Netflix series, in which Harry says his brother screamed and shouted at him at a showdown in Sandringham and accuses the Palace of briefing against him.

In the documentary Harry says that he emailed his father, then the Prince of Wales, from Canada at the end of 2019 when he and Meghan were trying to work out a different way of working with the royal family.

He says he sent him emails on January 1, 2 and 3, 2020. “In one of those, I’d mentioned that, you know, if this wasn’t going to work out, then we would be willing to relinquish our Sussex titles, if need be.”

A few days later the Sun ran a front-page story saying that the couple were preparing to leave the country.

Harry tells the program: “It became clear that the institution leaked the fact that we were going to be moving back to Canada. And the key piece of that story that made me aware that the contents of the letter between me and my father had been leaked was that we were willing to relinquish our Sussex titles. That was the giveaway. And I was like, ‘Wow.’ Our story, our life, literally got taken from underneath us.”

Sally Bedell Smith, the author of a number of royal biographies, believes that the detail may provide the excuse needed to remove the couple’s titles, as many people have demanded.

“The Sussex titles could go. It is a question of figuring how to do that best. Harry inadvertently gave his father an opening. And it is something he is certainly entitled to do.”

She drew parallels with the decision by George V to change the name of the royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor by proclamation during the First World War.

A Conservative MP said Harry and Meghan could by stripped of their titles by an amendment he will propose next year to a law which removed British titles from German royalty during the First World War.

Bob Seely has said: “If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex hate this country so much, they should either be giving up their titles or we should be helping them to do that.”

He said on Friday that the amendment was likely to be laid before parliament early next year.

Mr Seely, MP for the Isle of Wight, is proposing to amend The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 which allowed the King to appoint a committee of the privy council, including at least two members of the judiciary, to remove a royal title or peerage.

The amendment would replace the section referring to those who “have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty …” with “is referred to the committee by a resolution of the House of Commons”.

The MP said: “The duke and duchess become Mr and Mrs Windsor, and they can live in privacy for the rest of their lives, whilst the proper, ‘working’ royals can continue to serve our nation.”

The Times