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Meghan Markle can never catch a break. She and her husband Prince Harry have been at odds with the royal family for over a year, since the couple decided to step away from their roles as senior members.
And now they both may be stripped of their royal titles.
Aides from Buckingham Palace are calling on Harry and Meghan to give up their royal titles, which are respectively the Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex.
The call to strip Harry and Meghan comes after the prince appeared on Armchair Expert, a podcast hosted by actor Dax Shepard. In the episode, Prince Harry revealed that he had been wanting to leave the royal family for years before he met his wife and made the joint decision together.
The couple have been facing much tension from the royal family since stepping away and moving to the United States. Things seem to have only gotten worse lately, particularly as both have been quite vocal about the issues they experienced from being senior members of the royal family.
In an explosive, sit-down interview between the couple and Oprah, Harry and Meghan even revealed that they had faced racism and discrimination from the institution.
Following Prince Harry’s Armchair Expert interview, palace aides have been calling on the prince to relinquish his royal title.
"People are appalled that he could do this to the Queen when the Duke of Edinburgh is barely in his grave,' said one aide. 'To drag his grandfather into this is so shocking and disrespectful," a senior courtier told The Daily Mail.
The source continued, “The Duke of Sussex has now spent a significant amount of time emphasizing that he's no different to anyone else and attacking the institution which he says has caused him so much pain. There is a growing feeling that if you dislike the institution that much, you shouldn't have the titles.”
Harry and Meghan stopped using their HRH titles last year, meaning they are no longer called “His Royal Highness” or “Her Royal Highness” as senior members of the royal family are referred to. However they have held onto their titles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which they were given following their wedding in May 2018.
Despite the royal couple having so many titles, they do not technically have a last name. The royal family’s official last name is Mountbatten-Windsor, though no member has officially used this name until Harry and Meghan gave the name to their son, Archie.
If Prince Harry and Meghan were to be stripped of their royal titles, the Queen would be the only person who could make the decision. And experts predict that Queen Elizabeth will not decide to take away her grandson’s title.
"Some royals and their advisers may think Harry and Meghan should stop using royal titles but the Queen is unlikely to force the issue after the mistakes she made with Diana,” royal correspondent Richard Palmer said.
Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was stripped of her HRH title when she divorced Prince Charles in 1996, though it was decided that she would continue to be called Diana, Princess of Wales.
