Meghan Markle's official new title after marrying Prince Harry: What the Suits star will be called

She's not going to be called Princess Meghan... 
Alice Howarth29 November 2017

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are getting married. The announcement was made by Prince Charles this morning.

The pair, who have been dating since 2016, reportedly got engaged earlier this month but only their close family knew.

The wedding is due to take place in the spring and the couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace in London. However all other details of their pending nuptials will be "announced in due course" according to the statement from Clarence House.

One question we would like to know the answer to immediately though is what exactly will Meghan's official title be? Turns out, it’s actually a little complicated.

According to rules of British peerage, Meghan won’t become Princess Meghan because you can’t become royal through marriage, however she will take on the title of Her Royal Highness Princess Henry of Wales in her husband’s name. The privilege of having Princess before your first name is strictly reserved for women born into the royal family. Princess Diana became known as this by the media, not officially by the royal family.

Meghan Markle - In pictures

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The most likely situation, however, is that Harry and Meghan will actually become known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex but this depends on the Queen. The Queen must grant the couple a royal dukedom on their wedding day in order for them to be allowed these titles. This is the way that wives of royals can be known on an equal level to their husbands, otherwise Markle will have to get used to being known as Princess Henry of Wales.

The Queen did grant William and Kate this honour, so perhaps she'll do the same for the newly engaged couple.

As for kids, any children born to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be a lord or lady, not a prince or princess - unless the Queen steps in. Titles within the royal family were limited by Harry's great-great-grandfather King George V, who issued a Letters Patent in 1917.

It read: "...the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms."

This means Harry and Meghan's children, should they have any while Elizabeth II is on the throne, will not be HRHs or princes or princesses, but will be known instead as Lord or Lady (forename) Mountbatten-Windsor.

However the Queen could issue a new Letters Patent to change this - just as she did for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's children.

George was always entitled to be HRH Prince George of Cambridge as the eldest son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. But HRH Princess Charlotte of Cambridge would have been Lady Charlotte Mounbatten-Windsor.

In December 2012, when Kate was around three months pregnant, the Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm declaring "all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour".

A Letters Patent was granted in 1948 just before the Prince of Wales's birth because the 1917 decree excluded Princess Elizabeth's children from taking a royal style and title.

The Princess Royal's children, Peter and Zara Phillips, who do not hold titles, were Master and Miss Phillips when they were born. They were not entitled to be HRHs under the 1917 decree as they were born down the female line.

The Earl and Countess of Wessex's children, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and Viscount Severn, are actually entitled to be a princess and prince as children of the son of the Sovereign.

But Edward and Sophie decided, with the Queen's agreement, that their children would use the courtesy titles of sons or daughters of an earl rather than the style prince or princess.

So, what will actually happen when and if Harry and Meghan start a family? Time will tell.

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