Britain’s Prince Harry explored changing surname to Spencer, says Guardian report

LONDON – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan explored the idea of changing their family name to Spencer amid months of delays in their two children receiving British passports, the Guardian newspaper reported on June 4.

Harry, the Duke of Sussex, believed that the passport delays were the result of British officials blocking the applications over the use of the Sussex surname and HRH (His or Her Royal Highness) titles for his children, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed source.

A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that the Prince had a meeting with his late mother Diana’s brother Charles, Earl Spencer, to discuss the family name.

The source also said that other media reports which said Earl Spencer had advised Prince Harry against changing his surname, and that the legal hurdles to doing so were insurmountable, were inaccurate.

Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles III,

stepped down from royal duties in 2020

and moved to California, where he lives with his wife and their two children, Archie and Lilibet.

Since leaving, he and the Duchess of Sussex have been highly critical of the British royals in TV documentaries,

an explosive interview

with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey and most notably in Prince Harry’s best-selling biography, Spare. The Prince is barely on speaking terms with either his father or his elder brother, heir to the throne Prince William.

In a BBC interview in May, Prince Harry said

he wanted reconciliation

with the royal family, but that the King would not speak to him over a separate row about his security. REUTERS