British royal family strips Prince Harry of his "royal highness" title on its website

Three years after leaving Buckingham Palace and its responsibilities, the British royal family updated its website to remove Prince Harry's "royal highness" title. The gesture did not go unnoticed, and they delay was surprising.

Since Harry, along with Meghan Markle, decided to abandon his responsibilities as a member of the royal family, he lost his royal status and is listed simply as Duke of Sussex, a title of nobility that is held by him and his wife, as well as their children.

Despite the recent change, his web biography still lists him as fifth in line to the U.K. throne, behind William, prince of Wales, and his three sons. According to the website British Heritage, Harry is still a prince, and his right to the throne is still in effect within specific rules of the monarchy. By the same token, he has not lost all his royal privileges, even if he has formally lost the treatment of royal highness.

According to previous versions of the royal family's website, which can be consulted at archive.is, between 2020 and August 2023, the title of royal highness was mentioned up to three times to refer to both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the latter being his wife Meghan Markle. While the decision took three years to materialize for Harry's web entry, in Markle's case it was made almost immediately.

Bottom of the list

This is not the only change made to the website. Since his estrangement from the royal family, the photo and link leading to Harry's biography are much further down the list than they used to be. One must go down past Princess Alexandra, the Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Gloucester, all with secondary roles in the royal family, to find Harry's entry.

The biographies on the royal family website give a brief summary of the activities that each member is engaged with. They inform the public about the education and professional training that each one has received, without going into much more detail.