The Duke and Duchess of Sussex looked into changing their surname to Spencer amid repeated delays by British officials to issue passports for their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, according to reports.
It has been claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan waited almost six months for their children's passports to be issued and believe the application was "blocked" due to the use of their royal titles, according to The Guardian.
Archie and Lilibet became entitled to use their royal title when their grandfather the King acceded to the throne in 2022, because of rules set out by King George V in 1917.
Harry and Meghan started using Prince and Princess for Archie and Lilibet after the Princess's christening in 2023, following correspondence with the King about the matter.
© Instagram / @meghanA source is said to have told the newspaper that the Sussexes had feared that UK officials were dragging their feet because the passport applications included the titles HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) as well as the surname, Sussex, for both children. Archie was previously known by the royal family's surname, Mountbatten-Windsor, following his birth in May 2019.
The 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".
But Buckingham Palace strongly denied to The Telegraph that the King or palace aides had anything to do with the delays in issuing their passports.
© GettyHELLO! understands that Harry reached out to his maternal uncle, Earl Spencer, to discuss the possibility of using Spencer as the family's surname, if the applications were blocked.
The standard wait time for a passport is three weeks. But following a three-month delay, due to "technical issues", it is understood Harry and Meghan reapplied using the 24-hour passport service, only to have their meeting cancelled at the last minute owing to a "systems failure".
© JUSTIN COIT/NETFLIXThe children's passports were eventually issued after lawyers for the Duke and Duchess sent a letter threatening to pursue a data subject access request.
It's claimed that this could have revealed details of the delays – and the nature of any behind-the-scenes discussions between British officials responsible for issuing the documents.
