Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly explored the idea of changing their family name amid a prolonged delay in receiving passports for their children.
Harry, 40, consulted his uncle Charles Spencer about the possibility of using the Spencer surname during the impasse, according to The Guardian.
The U.K. outlet reports that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had grown “exasperated” over the repeated delays — with the passports for Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, arriving nearly six months after the initial application. Standard processing time is typically around three weeks.
“There was clear reluctance to issue passports for the kids,” a source close to the Sussexes said, according to the outlet.
A source confirms to PEOPLE that the delay was significantly longer than normal.
A legal source also told The Guardian that government officials were allegedly “dragging their feet because the passport applications included the titles HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) for both children.”
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Meghan Markle with her two children Archie and Lilibet in Netflix’s docuseries ‘Harry & Meghan’ (2022) ; Prince Harry with his son Archie in Netflix’s docuseries ‘Harry & Meghan’ (2022).
A source claimed to The Guardian that “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 the claim that the King or his officials had any role in the delay, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The source added to The Guardian, “Harry was at a point where British passports for his children with their updated Sussex surnames (since the death of Queen Elizabeth II) were being blocked with a string of excuses over the course of five months.”
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Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Prince William, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on July 10, 2018 in London, England.
“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?’”
Harry did meet and speak with his late mother’s brother, Charles Spencer, about the possibility of using the family name, PEOPLE confirms. However, a source denies reports published last weekend that Spencer advised against the change or that it would be legally “insurmountable,” calling those claims inaccurate.
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King Charles; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
A spokesperson for the Duke told PEOPLE, “We do not comment on private issues pertaining to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children.”
The passports were eventually issued to the couple shortly after the Sussexes’ lawyers wrote to the U.K. Home Office, threatening to file a data subject access request — a legal move that could have revealed internal discussions or decisions behind the delay.
According to The Guardian, Prince Archie previously held both U.K. and U.S. passports under the Mountbatten-Windsor surname until the more recent application.
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