- About a month after their son, Archie Harrison (opens in new tab), was born, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made some changes to his birth certificate.
- According to a report from The Sun (opens in new tab), both Harry and Meghan changed how their names appear on the official document.
- Meghan changed her name on the document from "Rachel Meghan" to "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex" and Harry added "Prince" to his title, which reads "His Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex."
Update 1/31: A spokesperson for Meghan Markle formally spoke out against reports that the name changes on Archie's birth certificate was requested by the Sussexes and the idea that it was, in any way, a "snub" of other members of the royal family.
"The change of name on public documents in 2019 was dictated by The Palace, as confirmed by documents from senior Palace officials," a spokesperson for Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex explained in a statement to Harper's Bazaar (opens in new tab). "This was not requested by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex nor by The Duke of Sussex. To see this U.K. tabloid and their carnival of so-called 'experts' chose to deceptively whip this into a calculated family 'snub' and suggest that she would oddly want to be nameless on her child’s birth certificate, or any other legal document, would be laughable were it not offensive. There’s a lot going on in the world; let’s focus on that rather than creating clickbait."
Original post: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (opens in new tab) made some pretty significant changes to their son, Archie Harrison's, birth certificate (opens in new tab) in the weeks following his birth.
According to a document obtained by The Sun (opens in new tab), the changes to Archie's birth certificate were made about a month after Meghan and Harry (opens in new tab) first welcomed Archie in May 2019 (opens in new tab). Both Harry and Meghan changed how their names appear on the official document, with Meghan getting rid of her given name, "Rachel Meghan," in favor of her royal title, "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex," and Harry adding "Prince" to his title (opens in new tab), which now reads "His Royal Highness Prince Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex."
Neither Harry nor Meghan (opens in new tab) has ever commented on the decision to change how their names appear on Archie's birth certificate, but the report from The Sun did offer a few theories.
"The unprecedented move could be seen as a snub to the Cambridges who have included Kate’s names on her children’s certificates," according to The Sun, which has a screenshot of the document (opens in new tab) available to view on its website. "It may also be viewed as Harry aligning his wife with mum Di, who always used 'Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.'"
According to the document obtained by The Sun, Harry and Meghan (opens in new tab) made the changes on June 5, 2019, just shy after a month after Archie was born on May 6 of that year.
Earlier reports about Archie's birth certificate (opens in new tab) revealed that Meghan used her royal job description on the document, listing her occupation as "Princess of the United Kingdom."
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Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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