MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry were told that Prince Charles was not going to make Archie a Prince just before their bombshell interview with Oprah, according to reports.
Sources believe this could explain why the Duchess of Sussex made such explosive claims about the firm – as the issue was raw at the time of filming.
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The Prince of Wales allegedly made it clear that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two-year-old son will not be at the forefront of the Royal Family when he becomes King.
As a grandchild of the sovereign Archie has the right to be a Prince, but it is understood that Charles is determined to limit the number of key working members of the family.
He believes that the public no longer wishes to pay for a growing monarchy, and has told senior Royals of his plans to cut down working members of the family.
According to the Mail On Sunday, Charles told Harry and Meghan that he will change key legal documents to make sure that Archie will not get the title he would have once been given by right.
Now insiders believe that this is the reason for the criticisms and accusations the Sussexes unleashed during their Oprah interview.
At one point Meghan even spelled it out for the audience saying “They [the Royal Family] were saying they didn’t want him to be a Prince or a Princess.”
“You know, the other piece of that convention 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.
“But also it’s not their right to take it away.”
After the revelations, it could be understood that Meghan was in fact actually referring to the secret news that Archie would never become a Prince, not even when Charles was King.
The Duchess of Sussex also said there had been conversations with Prince Harry and a “family” member about their unborn son and what colour his skin would be – and “what that would mean or look like”.
But the 39-year-old declined to say who had started those conversations, saying it would be “damaging” for them.
The decision comes after months of fraught discussions behind the scenes and has caused a bitter war of words between Harry and his relatives.
A source reportedly said: “Harry and Meghan were told Archie would never be a Prince, even when Charles became King.”
The existing rules for Royal titles were established in Letters Patent dated November 20, 1917, which allowed the title of Prince and Princess to be given to specific relatives.
The children of the sovereign, the children of the sovereign’s sons and the oldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales are entitled to be called Prince or Princess.
Prince George received the title automatically, while Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis received their titles as gifts from the Queen, who issued new Letters Patent to that effect in 2013.
An insider added: “Charles has never made any secret of the fact that he wants a slimmed-down Monarchy when he becomes King.
“He realises that the public don’t want to pay for a huge Monarchy and, as he said, the balcony at Buckingham Palace would probably collapse.”
A Royal source last night said: “We are not going to speculate about the succession or comment on rumours coming out of America.”
