Most Americans believe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s children should be given the names of prince and princess, according to an exclusive poll conducted for Newsweek.
Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor were born as Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, but when Queen Elizabeth II died and their grandfather became King Charles III, they became Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Despite the duchess telling Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 that the titles can cause “a lot of pain,” Harry and Meghan have started using them.
According to Redfield & Wilton polling for Newsweek, 53 percent of Americans believe their children should have the right to the names, while 15 percent believe they should not. Fourteen percent were unsure, and 18 percent said they didn’t care.
While Archie and Lilibet have been prince and princess since September, Meghan and Harry did not use the titles publicly at first, implying that the titles were not generally recognized.
In the days following Elizabeth’s death, Newsweek was informed that it was not the time to think about their designation, though Charles did declare that Prince William and Kate Middleton would be Prince and Princess of Wales.
After Lilibet was named earlier this month, Harry and Meghan revealed the new names for their children. The decision caused controversy due to Meghan’s previous remarks expressing worry about the implications of being titled, as well as the couple’s sweeping criticism of the monarchy.
Meghan told Oprah in March 2021: “It’s not our decision to make, right? Even though I have a lot of clarity on what comes with the titles, good and bad, and from my experience, a lot of pain. I, again, wouldn’t wish pain on my child, but that is their birthright to then make a choice about.”
However, the situation became even more complex when Meghan connected the issue of titles to both the question of whether her children would receive police protection and the allegation that an unknown family member had voiced “concern” about the color of her children’s skin.
She stated that there were family discussions about denying her children their titles, making the fact that they did get them all the more important.
“The idea of our son not being safe,” she told CBS, “and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way that other grandchildren would be . . .
“You know, the other piece of that conversation is, there’s a convention-I forget if it was George V or George VI convention-that when you’re the grandchild of the monarch, so when Harry’s dad becomes king, automatically Archie and our next baby would become prince or princess, or whatever they were going to be.”
Archie and Lilibet were made prince and princess under the George V convention. In the days following the Oprah interview, Newsweek was informed that Meghan was alluding to changes that had been discussed but never implemented.