Prince Harry’s Royal Title Gets Jarring Change on Royal Family Website

Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” is officially removed.Three years after the Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle retired as working members of the British royal family, Harry’s official page on the royal family’s website has been updated to remove the title “His Royal Highness.” The Sussexes’ names have also been moved toward the bottom of the family’s main page beneath other working members of the Firm, though they are listed above Prince Andrew.

The update, first noticed Tuesday, came just days after Express reported Friday that the Duke of Sussex was still being referred to by his HRH title in his bio. A section of Harry’s bio previously read, “In 2016, His Royal Highness underwent a public HIV test at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital to raise awareness and promote how easy it is to get tested, as part of his on-going efforts to eradicate stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS.” All HRH titles in his bio have since been replaced with “the Duke” or “the Duke of Sussex.”

The update seems to simply be the result of larger delayed updates to the royal family’s website, which has not been completely updated since the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, 2022. Express‘ report last week noted that Her Majesty was still referred to as the current monarch, while her son, the current King Charles III, was called “the Prince of Wales,” including in Harry’s hip, which referred to him as the youngest son of the Prince of Wales. Queen Camilla was also still being styled as “the Duchess of Cornwall.” Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton were still referred to as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the site until recently. The site has since been updated to reflect their current titles and ranks.

“The Royal Family website contains over five thousand pages of information about the life and work of the Royal Family. Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically. Some content may be out of date until this process is complete,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement reported by Express.

The removal of Harry’s HRH title from the website comes after the royal and his wife agreed to give up their “HRH” titles after stepping back as senior members of the royal family,a decision they first announced in January 2020 just prior to moving to the U.S. The officially resigned from their positions the following year. In a statement on January 18, 2020, Buckingham Palace confirmed, per the Independent, “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.” 

Harry and Markle are still referred to formally as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Harry maintains his place as fifth in the line of succession to the throne. Their two children – 4-year-old son Prince Archie and 2-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet – are also in the line of succession behind their father and are officially referred to as Prince Archie of Sussex Princess Lilibet of Sussex after having previously been styled as “Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor” and “Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor. Their prince and princess titles came after their grandfather acceded the throne.