The Palace Insists Archie Was Denied a Title Because of Royal Protocol and "It's Nothing to Do with Race"

• During her explosive sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey last weekend, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex (opens in new tab), shared several bombshell revelations about her experiences in the royal family.
• Among the revelations from the interview was the fact that Meghan Prince Harry's son, Archie Harrison, was denied a title by the Palace in a move that Meghan said went against royal protocol.
• According to Us Weekly (opens in new tab), however, a royal source says the Palace denies this and insists that it was actually royal protocol not to give Archie a title. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (opens in new tab) are at odds with the Palace—again, that is.

In one of the most shocking moments from the couple's sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey (opens in new tab) last weekend, Meghan revealed that her son, Archie Harrison (opens in new tab), was denied a title by the Palace and senior members of the royal family. While Meghan said the decision went against protocol, the Palace says that's not the case, according to a source.

"They didn’t want him to be a prince or a princess, which would be different from protocol," Meghan said during the interview with Oprah. "It was really hard.…This went on for the last few months of our pregnancy where I’m going, 'Hold on a second. How does that work? … If he’s not gonna be a prince, he needs to be safe.'"

While it was previously believed that Harry and Meghan (opens in new tab) had opted to forgo a title on Archie's behalf (opens in new tab) (a move with precedent within the royal family—the Queen's daughter, Princess Anne (opens in new tab), did so with her children, Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips (opens in new tab)), Meghan made it clear during the televised tell-all that she and Harry very much wanted Archie to be titled, if for no other reason than it would have, as they understood things, guaranteed him security protection.

According to Meghan, she wasn't part of these conversations and instead learned updates about the situation from Harry, who also relayed a troubling discussion an unnamed member of the royal family (opens in new tab) had about Archie's skin color.

"All around this same time, we had in tandem the conversation of he won’t be given security, he’s not going to be given a title, and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born," Meghan explained. "That was relayed to me from Harry, those were conversations that family had with him. And I think it was really hard to be able to see those as compartmentalized conversations."

Although the Palace did release a statement following the interview, it did not address the issue of Archie's title directly. According to Us Weekly (opens in new tab), however, a royal source says the Palace definitely denies that withholding a title from Archie was anything other than standard protocol

"The palace says it’s nothing to do with race. Under royal protocol established by King George V, only those in the direct line of succession to the throne get the titles [of] prince or princess," the source explained, adding that once Archie's grandfather becomes monarch, he would then be eligible for a title. "Archie would’ve been given a title when Prince Charles became king."