What’s in a name?
Meghan Markle no longer uses her given surname “Markle,” instead opting for “Sussex” so as to share the same last name as her children.
Meghan, 43, has two children with her husband, Prince Harry, 40 — son Prince Archie of Sussex, 5, and daughter Princess Lilibet of Sussex, 3 — made the revelation during a conversation with Mindy Kaling on the second episode of her new Netflix cooking show, “With Love, Meghan.”
Kaling, one of the series’ celebrity guests, refers to Meghan using the surname she used during her days as an actress while talking about kids’ parties and their own childhoods.
“People wouldn’t believe that Meghan Markle ate at Jack in the Box,” Kaling, 45, says, which spurs Meghan to correct the “Mindy Project” star, according to People.
“It’s so funny, too, that you keep saying ‘Meghan Markle,’” Meghan tells Kaling. “You know I’m Sussex now.”
After marrying Prince Harry in May 2018, she and Harry officially became “the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” a title given to them by the late Queen Elizabeth II as a wedding present.
The couple’s children, born Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, respectively, were made Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex, following the death of Queen Elizabeth death and the ascension of Harry’s father, King Charles III, owing to royal rules which entitle the grandchildren of a sovereign to become prince or princesses of the realm.
“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children,’” Meghan added. “I didn’t know how meaningful that would be to me, but it just means so much to go, this is our family name, our little family name.”
Kaling nodded and replied, “Now I know, and I love it.”
The Duchess of Sussex also spoke about the significance of her title and new last name during a recent interview with People.
“It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children,” she explained.
“I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
Meghan also shared that the Sussex name “is part of our love story,” adding, “I think as the kids get older, they’re so excited about, ‘Oh my gosh, Mama and Papa, how did you meet?’ I think that will come with time as they get older, but for right now a huge part of our love story is that we share the name Sussex.”
Meghan’s name on Archie’s birth certificate was listed as “Rachel Meghan, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex,” though it was later amended to remove her first and middle name given at birth to read only, “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex.”
Meghan and Harry stopped using the style “HRH” (His/Her Royal Highness) when they stepped down from their roles as senior working members of the royal family in 2020. However, they both still use the titles “the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.”
