Prince Harry looked into changing his family’s name to Spencer after “repeated delays by British officials” to issue passports for his child...
Prince Harry looked into changing his family’s name to Spencer after “repeated delays by British officials” to issue passports for his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, reports have claimed. The Mail on Sunday originally reported that the Duke of Sussex had “discussed the issue” with his uncle and the late Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, and “actively explored ways” over how to make the change during a visit to Britain – the date of which was unspecified.
But he was allegedly told that “the legal hurdles were insurmountable”. Sources from the Sussex camp dismissed the latest claim and said it is “completely untrue”. The move raised eyebrows with various commentators stressing it would further deepen the rift between Harry and the royals. Now, a new report by The Guardian claimed that Harry’s move was a result of “sheer exasperation” after Archie and Lilibet’s UK passports took six months to be issued after the initial applications, with lawyers for the Sussexes allegedly sending a letter and “threatening to pursue a data subject access request”.
The outlet reported that the applications for Archie and Lilibet included the surname Sussex, which the couple have been using publicly, but added that until 2023, Archie had both US and UK passports under the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
King Charles does not usually use a family name, but when one is needed, it is Mountbatten-Windsor.
The surname is available to all descendants of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It combines the Royal Family’s name of Windsor and the late Duke’s adopted surname of Mountbatten.
A source told The Guardian: “There was clear reluctance to issue passports for the kids.”
The standard wait time for a passport is three weeks, but Harry and Meghan reportedly reapplied for their children’s passports after not receiving them for three months due to “technical issues”.
But their application using the 24-hour passport service was reportedly cancelled at the last minute owing to a “systems failure”.
The source added: “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, according to The Telegraph.
Asked if the palace had made any suggestion or objection to the documents being issued with the HRH titles, a spokesman said: “No.”
The source claimed that Archie and Lilibet’s passports with their updated Sussex surnames were being “blocked with a string of excuses over the course of five months”.
They claimed: “Out of sheer exasperation he went to his uncle to effectively say ‘My family are supposed to have the same name and they’re stopping that from happening because the kids are legally HRH, so if push comes to shove, if this blows up and they won’t let the kids be called Sussex, then can we use Spencer as a surname?’”
The outlet claimed that Harry is thought to want to keep the HRH titles for Archie and Lilibet so they can decide if they want them when they are older.
The Home Office and Buckingham Palace declined to comment on The Guardian’s report.
A spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex said: “We do not comment on private issues pertaining to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children.”
