Queen Elizabeth death: Mystery grows over Meghan and Harry's children's titles

OPINION:

On Saturday morning, NZ time, hours after King Charles III delivered his first address as sovereign, someone, I'm imagining in a dimly lit office wedged in the Buckingham Palace basement, set about updating the Royal Family's website, specifically the new order of succession.

Immediately, everyone got bumped up a notch; William was listed under his new title; and he and wife Kate, the Princess of Wales' three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all had their entries tweaked to include "of Wales."

But move a tad further down the list to the sixth and seventh spots and something very strange indeed is going on. That's where Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussexes' two children, son Archie and daughter Lilibet sit, and who, unlike their Wales cousins, are still listed having the same titles they did this time last week.

Huh.

Technically, the very second that their grandfather assumed the top job, Montecito's most famous preschoolers immediately became a prince and princess under the Letters Patent set down by King George V in 1917. (You know, at the same time George was obscuring all their German relatives from view and changing the royal family's surname from the Teutonic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.)

And yet despite the rules here being very clearly set down and more than 24 hours after that website refresh, the world remains in the dark about whether the 3-and-a-half-year-old and his 1-year-old sister will be known as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet or not.

The topic of the Sussexes' little ones and their titles, or lack thereof, has long been a very sore point indeed for the couple. Meghan even famously alleged during their Oprah Winfrey interview that she was told their first child would be denied the title of prince because of his mixed-race heritage.

Meghan and Harry's children Archie and Lilibet are due new titles, but the change is mysteriously missing from the new order of succession. Photo / Getty Images

The titles for Archie and Lilibet remained unchanged on the official Royals website. Photo / Royal.uk

The former Suits star told Winfrey that during her pregnancy with her son, "they said they want to change the [George V] convention for Archie" and that "they were saying they didn't want him to be a prince or a princess … which would be different from protocol."

At another point she said of the title issue, "it's not their right to take it away."

What the Duchess seemed to be implying was that Charles, who has long espoused a "slimmed down" monarchy, might take steps to change the Letters Patent to prevent Harry and Meghan's children becoming a prince and princess when he became king, or as she put it, their "birthright".

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry look at floral tributes as they meet members of the public on a walkabout at Windsor Castle. Photo / AP

At the time, Buckingham Palace did not comment on this or any of the couple's other shocking allegations, only issuing that iconic "recollections may vary" statement and in the 18 months since then, there has not been any movement out of London on this front.

(It's also worth pointing out at this point that the Sussexes could have chosen to give their children titles. Their son was entitled to be known as the Earl of Dumbarton, one of Harry's subsidiary titles while their daughter could have been styled as a Lady. Last year The Telegraph reported that they had refused the Dumbarton title on account of the fact that included the word "dumb" and that, according to a source, "they were worried about how that might look.")

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Archie and Lilibet in their 2021 Christmas Card. Photo / Supplied

The prevailing assumption, based on Meghan's Oprah's comments, seemed to be that their children would become Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet the very moment they were able to.

So, why has this not come to pass?

Those George V Letters Patent remain in effect now, as of then, as they were then and there has not been a smidgen of movement on the possibility of Charles issuing new ones.

Have the Sussexes decided they want to follow Princess Anne's lead and ensure their children can have as normal of a life as possible by refusing titles for them? Could Charles be considering some sort incredibly idiotic change to the Letters Patent? Could our Palace website boffin simply have run out of Red Bull and will get around to finishing the updating job any minute now?

Both Buckingham Palace and the Sussexes have remained tight-lipped on the subject this weekend.

The only comment that has emerged has come from a spokesman for the King, speaking to The Independent and which truly falls under the bizarre category. During Charles' first address as king he spoke of his "love" for Harry and Meghan and the spokesman said: "While the website was updated for the Waleses, clearly updating love on a website doesn't quite work so we've not quite done with that but clearly he does love them. We will be working through updating the website as and when we get information."

(Has someone been at the cooking sherry again?)

When asked specifically about Archie and Lili and their title situation, the spokesman told the paper: "At the moment, we're focused on the next 10 days and as and when we get information, we will update that website."

Right, well that's clear as mud …

What is truly extraordinary here is that this seemingly straightforward question, of whether Archie and Lili will become a prince and princess, seems to have caught everyone on the hop. Her Majesty was 96 years old; her passing was a sad but wholly predictable event. One would have thought that these sorts of entirely necessary conversations, about what the duke and duchess might want for their children and what Charles might be planning or not, would have been had by now.

It would seem not.

Meghan and Harry's children Archie and Lilibet are due new titles, but the change is mysteriously missing from the new order of succession. Photo / Getty Images

If, and let's triple underline the "if" here, Charles was to decide to issue new Letters Patent which changed the rules for Archie and Lili, it is nearly impossible to express how astoundingly stupid such a move would be. Our new king might spend his nights dreaming of the monarchy as a lean, efficient force for good, only a select few titled folk whizzing about the place and changing Britain for the better, but the optics of him barring the first mixed-race children born into the House of Windsor from being a prince and princess would be appalling.

There is one other option worth considering. Back during that Oprah interview, asked by the talk show titan about reports that the Sussexes themselves "didn't want Archie to have a prince title," Meghan said, "No, and it's not our decision to make … that is their birthright to then make a choice about."

Might Harry and Meghan leave the choice of title or not entirely up to Archie and Lili to make when they are older?

There is precedent for this. Prince Edward and Sophie, Countess of Wessex decided they wanted their daughter and son to be styled as the children of an earl rather than prince, to try and let them have a more normal life. (After all, they were nowhere near the top of the line of succession so why saddle them with the onerous, largely useless, appendages?)

Last November, their daughter Lady Louise turned 18 years old and had she wanted, she could have chosen to start using her HRH and calling herself Her Royal Highness. She did not and as was recently revealed, is currently earning minimum wage working at a suburban garden centre.

(Though somehow I don't see Archie getting a job at his local Wholefoods in 15-years-time.)

While we will have to wait and see how this situation develops, at least we can say this: In early June, for the first and only time, the 1-year-old and her great-grandmother met. At least, just once Lilibet got to meet Lilibet.

• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.