Buckingham Palace removes Prince Harry HRH title from the official royal website, 3 years after he and Meghan Markle stepped down as working royals
- Prince Harry is no longer referred to by his HRH title on the official royal website.
- Since August 4, Harry has been referred to as "The Duke" rather than "His Royal Highness."
Three years after stepping back as a senior working royal, Prince Harry's HRH title has been officially dropped from the royal website.
As Sky News and The Independent reported, references to Harry were swapped from HRH, which stands for His Royal Highness, to "The Duke" on Friday. The update on the official royal website comes after Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from the royal family in April 2020 – before doing so, Harry's full name was His Royal Highness Henry Charles Albert David Duke of Sussex.
Representatives for Meghan and Harry and Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex retain their HRH titles, they agreed not to use them in an official capacity after they ceased royal duties.
In a statement shared with Sky News, Buckingham Palace said that some of the information shared on the official royal website is out of date and work is currently underway to amend it, including references to Harry's titles.
"The Royal Family website contains over five thousand pages of information about the life and work of the Royal Family," the statement read.
"Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically," it added. "Some content may be out of date until this process is complete."
The title change also comes after Buckingham Palace took six months to publicly refer to Harry and Meghan's children, Archie and Lilibet, as prince and princess after they technically inherited the titles when King Charles III ascended the throne.
Although Harry and Meghan agreed to stop using their HRH titles in 2020, they made no such promises to stop using their other titles. The couple continues to use their Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles, which were bestowed onto them by the late Queen Elizabeth II when they got married in May 2018.
And as Harry is a prince by birth and son to the current monarch, he retains the right to be referred to as a Prince of the United Kingdom. While she primarily uses her Duchess of Sussex title, Meghan is also technically a Princess of the United Kingdom, a title she picked up upon tying the knot with Harry.
"The Queen made the decision to honor Harry by making him a royal duke on his wedding day. He is, and will always be, a prince — given he is the second son of the heir to the throne," Robert Jobson, royal editor at the Evening Standard, previously told Insider.