Featured Image Credit: Toby Melville/Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images
Topics: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Royal Family, UK News, The Queen
Britt Jones
Topics: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Royal Family, UK News, The Queen
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry secretly carried out an amendment to their son's birth certificate in 2019.
Just weeks after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their baby boy Archie into the world on June 5, when he was just one day from turning one month old, Meghan decided something needed to change.
The couple had been through a highly publicised pregnancy, which was often criticised by those who weren't fans of Meghan’s position within the Royal Family.
From the way she held her bump, to how she carried herself, nothing was ever good enough.
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When Archie was born, there were also those who were upset about his name choice. However, it was Meghan’s name that was changed on one crucial document.
During a time when there were rumours that the Royal Family were engaging in petty arguments, the Duchess altered her name on Archie’s birth certificate.
She changed it from ‘Rachel Meghan’ to ‘Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex’.
The reason for it remains unknown, however, some media outlets had a hunch - specifically that the name change was meant to be a dig at the other high profile couple in the Royal Family, Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Also known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their fore names are said to still be on their children’s documents.
But then, others didn’t agree with the theory and put it down to Meghan and Prince Harry choosing to do something that his own mother chose for herself too.
As Princess Diana formerly used the title ‘Her Royal Highness the Princes of Wales’, it very well could have been a nod to her late mother-in-law.
The tribute to Diana is a ‘remarkable’ one, as removing forenames to put forward your title isn’t a move any other Royal has done.
However, the pair have been pretty open and honest about their wish to keep the late Princess’s memory alive, and even showed off some home footage in their Netflix documentary of them talking to Archie about his grandmother.
But the name change wasn’t the only thing the pair did that was out of character.
They soon hopped on a flight to Canada and then to the United States to start fresh as a family, formally leaving the Royal Family and their royal titles.
They then welcomed a second child in Lilibet, who is said to have been named after Prince Philip’s nickname for Queen Elizabeth II.
Their nods to prominent members of the family should have been a sweet exchange, but of course they received flack about that too.
Anyway, we can’t ever be sure of the reason why Meghan changed her name to her title on her son’s birth certificate, but experts have weighed in,
Lady Colin Campbell, who discovered the birth certificate amendment, said: "It is extraordinary and raises all kinds of questions about what the Sussexes' were thinking."
Royal commentator Ingrid Seward also chimed in to figure out the truth: "For a royal to change a birth certificate is unprecedented but to remove forenames is remarkable.
"Perhaps this is another sign they were desperate to do something different to the Cambridges."