Royal expert Jennie Bond has questioned Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s reported plan they’ve hatched for the future for their children Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet

Prince Harry (Image: Getty Images)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may no longer be working royals or carry out duties for the King. But the couple reportedly don’t want to rule out their children opting to support the monarchy, despite their bombshell move to quit their royal roles.

Insiders close to the Sussexes have said they want Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet to retain their titles and HRH styles so they can choose to become working royals if they so wish when they are adults. It came after the source spoke out and claimed the Sussexes feared passports for their children were being held up due to the use of their royal titles.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Colombia last year(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

The couple are said to have been left exasperated as they waited months for British passports to arrive and reportedly believed it was due to the fact they included their children’s royal titles on the application. But former BBC royal expert Jennie Bond has questioned why Harry and Meghan appear so keen to cling onto titles for their children – even though they have previously railed against the institution of monarchy.

She told the : “I really don’t understand why, having extricated themselves from a life they did not enjoy and in which Harry has publicly spoken of ‘feeling trapped’, they want to give their children the option of re-joining. It makes no sense.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in the future? But it’s very hard to see how two children who are clearly now more American than British would want to change their whole way of life and become working members of the royal family.”

Archie and Lilibet got prince and princess titles when their grandfather King Charles became monarch in 2022. The first time their titles were formally announced was after Lilibet’s christening in March 2023.

Harry and Meghan with their children (Image: ARCHWELL)

Due to the reported hold-up in their British passports, it is said that Harry started to explore the possibility of changing his family surname to Spencer in a nod to his late mother, Princess Diana.

And Jennie added: “I think Harry has always been more Spencer than Windsor, so if he was ever going to change his name, it would be to Spencer.

“But this would be a final nail in the coffin of his relationship with his father and his brother. It would amount to a public declaration that he no longer saw himself as part of the royal family.”

There has been continued controversy over the Sussexes’ HRH titles since the pair quit their royal roles five years ago. As part of their Megxit negotiations with the Palace, Meghan and the Duke of Sussex agreed to stop using “Her Royal Highness” and “His Royal Highness” at the end of March 2020. They still retain the styles, with Harry having had his since birth, but they are essentially held in abeyance.

However, earlier this year, it emerged Meghan had used her HRH style on a gift basket sent to make-up entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima last year, with a monogrammed card reading: “With Compliments of HRH The Duchess of Sussex”.

Kern Lima showed an image of the present in footage of her podcast interview with Meghan. It contained a jar of Meghan’s jam which she has started selling as part of her As Ever lifestyle business brand.

A source described the basket as a “personal gift”. The duchess’s representatives denied that the couple used them, but a source later said that the Sussexes did not use HRH publicly but retained the style, and did not use it for commercial purposes.