Prince Harry is said to have had difficulty procuring British passports for his two children – Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet – allegedly due to his desire for the documents to use their royal titles

Charles’ fallout with Harry is widely known(Image: Getty Images)

Prince Harry came into difficulty when trying to get British passports for his two children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, it has been claimed – but the saga is said to have left royal insiders bewildered.

The Duke of Sussex allegedly faced delays when it came to procuring the official documentation for his children, in part due to his desire to use their royal titles in the passports.

According to a report by The Guardian, Harry and his wife Meghan were told that the passports had been delayed for their kids due to technical issues, so they re-applied through the 24-hour service that is available – only for the required meeting to be cancelled.

The couple are said to have sent a legal letter that threatened to seek the data surrounding the issues – and the passports were finally issued just days later, six months after the process began. A standard passport application usually takes around three weeks in the UK.

During the long process, Harry was reportedly so frustrated he even considered applying for the passports under his mother, the late Princess Diana’s, family name of Spencer.

Archie already had a British passport under the name of Mountbatten-Windsor, but the new document would have used the name Sussex, along with his royal title of prince and the styling ‘HRH’.

This was a point of contention, a source close to the Sussex family claimed, as “the King hadn’t wanted Archie and Lili to carry the titles, most of all the HRH, and the British passports, once created, would be the first and perhaps the only legal proof of their names.”

Buckingham Palace strongly denied that the King or palace aides had anything to do with the delays in issuing their passports, The Telegraph reports.

It was also reported that Harry is keen for the children to have the ‘Royal Highness’ styling so when they are older they can decide if they would like to be working members of the Royal Family themselves – or stay out of the spotlight.

However, this claim is said to have left insiders confused, with “bemusement in royal circles” about the idea.

Harry and Meghan dropped the HRH styling in 2020 when they stepped back as working royals as it was decided the couple would make a full break from the monarchy.

In a report marking Prince William’s 43rd birthday, the Sunday Times claimed, “Under the next reign, roles for Archie and Lili as working royals are unlikely.”