Harry and his wife Meghan Markle kept their HRH titles after stepping down as senior royals, but agreed to stop using them. It has now emerged that the Duke of Sussex had his HRH title removed from a Kensington Palace exhibition featuring Princess Diana’s wedding dress after an “administrative error”. Placards at the Royal Style in the Making exhibition, which opened this week, initially described Diana’s items as “lent by HRH the Duke of Cambridge and HRH the Duke of Sussex”.
Aspokesman for the Royal Collection trust said the “labels were incorrect and will be updated” to remove Harry’s HRH style.
The development emerged after the Sussexes were demoted on the Royal Family’s official website.
The couple were previously listed near the top of the page, just under Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, but are now below Prince Edward, Sophie, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew.
While Harry still technically has his HRH, but does not use it, Princess Diana was stripped of the title altogether when she divorced Prince Charles.
Prince WIlliam comforted Diana over the loss of her HRH titles before Prince Harry’s loss (Image: GETTY)
Charles and Diana divorced in 1996 after three and a half years of separation (Image: GETTY)
After marrying Charles in 1981, Lady Diana Spencer became HRH The Princess of Wales.
But the HRH was taken away in the legal settlement finalising their divorce in 1996, cemented in a new Letters Patent declaring this.
According to the Daily Mirror, the Queen was happy for Diana to keep her HRH because she was mother to the future King, but Charles insisted they were removed.
Diana was henceforth known only as Diana, Princes of Wales.
Meghan and Harry have been told not to use their HRH titles (Image: GETTY)
She was said to be devastated about this, prompting her 14-year-old son William to come up with a plan to cheer her up.
In his book ‘A Royal Duty’, Diana’s butler and friend Paul Burrell claimed William promised to restore her title.
The young prince apparently said: “Don’t worry Mummy, I will give it back to you one day when I am King.”
Mr Burrell claims the conversation left Diana in tears.
Princess Diana with her mother Frances (Image: GETTY)
Diana losing her HRH title meant it was no longer necessary for friends or staff to bow or curtsy in her presence and she would have to curtsy to her ex-husband, sons and minor royals.
Diana was so upset about losing her title that she actually cut off her mother Frances for months after she suggested that losing it may have been a good thing.
Frances Shand Kydd felt like her daughter could make a fresh start without the weight of being a royal, but Diana felt differently.
They were not even on speaking terms at the time of her tragic death in August 1997.
According to the author of The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, Diana was also stripped of her security at the time of her divorce.
During her marriage to Charles, her safety was of the utmost importance to the monarchy, but after the divorce was finalised, she was only given police protection when attending public events, and instead privately funded her own bodyguards.
This has parallels to Harry and Meghan’s experience today.
They too were stripped of their royal protection when they stepped down from full-time duties.
Harry bemoaned this in his interview with Oprah Winfrey saying: “The justification is a change in status, of which I pushed back and said, ‘Well is there a change of threat or risk?’
And after many weeks of waiting, eventually I got the confirmation that no, the risk and threat hasn’t changed but due to our change of status, (by) which we would no longer be official working members of the Royal Family…”
He also said his father Prince Charles cut him off and that he had had to rely on his inheritance from Diana.
However, Harry was criticised by Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers, who said: “Where would the sympathy be for a 36-year-old man who is complaining about being cut off financially, who is worth the best part of £30million?”