Meghan Markle Has a ‘Secret Plan’ to Keep Her Royal Identity if William Strips Her Title: Expert
After Prince Andrew was made to surrender his titles last week, a move many believe was engineered by King Charles and Prince William, fresh chatter began around whether the future king, known for his no-nonsense ways, might someday do the same to his brother and sister-in-law. After all, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down from royal duties, made bombshell allegations, and left their titles hanging by a thread. But now, an expert suggests Markle may have seen this coming all along and has been playing a much longer, smarter game. A subtle clue, they say, hints at a 'secret plan' that could help her keep a royal identity, title or not.
While the Sussexes’ controversies hardly compare to the gravity of Andrew’s missteps, insiders believe the precedent being set is hard to ignore. According to royal correspondent Tom Sykes, who reported for The Daily Beast, William is expected to formalize the removal of the Sussexes’ titles once he ascends the throne. If that day ever comes, Markle has allegedly taken steps to ensure the Sussex name doesn’t fade with the titles.
The tiny and telling clue came about in her Netflix series, ‘With Love, Meghan.’ As she has positioned Sussex as her family name, she has found a way to keep her royal identity. In a light-hearted conversation with Mindy Kaling, Markle corrected her guest for repeatedly calling her ‘Meghan Markle.’ She said, “You know I’m Sussex now. When you have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children.’ And that feels so… I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me, but it just means so much to go, ‘This is our family name, our little family name.’”
Months later, in an interview with PEOPLE, Markle reiterated the same, describing 'Sussex' as her family’s shared name — one that connects her, Harry, and their children. “It’s our shared name as a family,” she said. “I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H, and I all have together.”
For those unversed, when Harry and Markle tied the knot in 2018, the late Queen Elizabeth granted them the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex. In the years that followed, the couple began using 'Sussex' as a family name for their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet — even though, officially, their birth certificates list the traditional royal surname: Mountbatten-Windsor.
But after Markle's reminders, talk show hosts from Drew Barrymore to Bloomberg’s Emily Chung have introduced her as 'Meghan Sussex.' When asked directly whether she had legally changed her name, Markle sidestepped the question, only clarifying: “It’s a dukedom. That’s the truth of it. But at the end of the day, Sussex for us works as our family name — it’s the name we share with our children.”
In essence, she’s turned 'Sussex' into something bigger than a title, a family identity. So, should the monarchy eventually step to strip them of the dukedom, the Sussexes would still carry the name that links them to their royal past without technically breaching any protocol.