Prince Harry and Meghan Markle rejected the title offered to their son, Archie out of fear of school ‘mockery’, a royal expert claims.
According to Andrew Morton, 68, a royal biographer, having the word ‘dumb’ in Archie’s honorary title was enough for the Sussexes to reject it.
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, 2, could grow up as the Earl of Dumbarton, but his parents are allegedly worried that it would attract mockery at school.
Morton, who has re-released his book titled Meghan and the Unmasking of the Monarchy: A Hollywood Princess, said that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision reflect how sensitive they are about their family’s image.
Based on the royal tradition, Archie was entitled to take the secondary title of his father. When they got married in May 2018, the Queen made Prince Harry and Meghan the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the Earl and Countess of Dumbarton, and the Baron and Baroness Kilkeel.
“[Archie] could have taken the title [of] the Earl of Dumbarton, which is an honorary title, but [Harry and Meghan] decided against that because they felt that the word ‘dumb’ in the word ‘Dumbarton’ would have been used as a mockery when Archie went to school,” Morton told US Weekly.
“And again, it shows you their sensitivity to image,” he said. “Which is something, you know, somebody was saying to me [that] the other day that they contacted team Sussex and the first question [the Sussexes] asked was what pictures are you using?”
“And that person thought, that’s everything you need to know about the Sussexes,” Morton explained.
According to the Daily Star, Harry and Meghan still left the door open for Archie to choose whether he wants to have an honorary title when he grows up.
At the time of Archie’s birth in May 2019, it was revealed that Harry and Meghan’s eldest son would be officially known as Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, rather than Prince Archie of Sussex.
The reason is because of the letters written by King George V in 1917.
He wrote that all the children of the sovereign, the male-line grandchildren, and the eldest son were all entitled to hold a princely title, the Daily Star reported.