VF: Prince Harry is ‘now closer to his mother’s family than his immediate family’

Sometimes, I feel like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s defenders are too quick to declare a story false without at least considering the idea that A) the Windsors are actually confessing to something diabolical and B) Team Sussex usually comes out and claps back on some of the worst stories so it’s good to wait until all of the facts come out. I’ll be more specific. This week, Richard Eden at the Mail ran an exclusive about Prince Harry speaking to the Earl Spencer about possibly changing the Sussexes’ surname to Spencer. This story was confirmed several days later by the Guardian, with a sh-t ton of extra context. Context like: Buckingham Palace managed to influence a delay in issuing Archie and Lilibet’s British passports, and Harry was so upset about the six-month delay, he consulted his Uncle Charles about the possibility of a Spencer name-change. The consultation happened in the months after QEII’s death, when King Charles was playing dithering games about the Sussex kids’ titles. Well, it looks like Vanity Fair might have gotten a briefing from Team Sussex too, because they have some interesting quotes about this story:

This year, Meghan Markle has emphasized that “Sussex” is the surname she shares with Prince Harry and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex. But a recent report from The Guardian revealed that a recent passport snafu led the duke and duchess to consider giving their children different legal names.

According to the newspaper, Harry and Meghan applied for British passports for their children, which were so delayed that the couple’s lawyers sent a letter expressing a desire to request access to the information under the terms of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data protection law. Days after the letter was sent, The Guardian reports, the UK government issued passports for Archie and Lili.

“There was clear reluctance to issue passports for the kids,” a source close to Meghan and Harry told the newspaper. “The king hadn’t wanted Archie and Lili to carry the titles, most of all the HRH, and the British passports, once created, would be the first and perhaps the only legal proof of their names.”

A spokesperson for the couple told Vanity Fair, “We do not comment on private issues pertaining to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s children.”

The behind-the-scenes discussions about the Sussex children and the complicated subject of their legal names has been in the news recently after the Mail on Sunday’s Richard Eden reported that the couple once considered changing their legal names to “Spencer,” the maiden name of Princess Diana. VF understands that Prince Harry once spoke to his maternal uncle Charles Spencer about the family name but did not pursue a legal name change.

“He’s now closer to his mother’s family than his immediate family,” a source close to the family told VF. “At one point Harry mooted the idea of taking the Spencer name, but rejected it because he knew it would be way too controversial and yet another legal headache.”

Spencer has been a source of support for Harry during the last few years. “Harry is very close to his maternal side of the family, and in all of this his uncle Earl Spencer has been a shoulder to cry on,” the source added. “Harry has stayed with his uncle when he’s been over in the UK and is always invited to join the Spencers for Christmas.”

[From Vanity Fair]

“At one point Harry mooted the idea of taking the Spencer name, but rejected it because he knew it would be way too controversial and yet another legal headache.” One of the things I still want to know is what names they use for all of their American business and legal documents. I would imagine that, especially after QEII’s passing, there was some suggestion to just drop their titles completely in all of their American dealings and simply adopt the same surname legally. Is “adopting the Sussex surname” more or less of a headache than adopting the Spencer surname? Once again, I appreciate how much the Spencer family has Harry’s back. And it’s always nice to hear that Uncle Charles invites the Sussexes to Christmas at Althorp!

Anyway, the Spencer name story is overshadowing a much more diabolical story about the influence wielded by King Charles and the palace courtiers. Never forget that these were the same people who removed Meghan’s name from her son’s birth certificate. And now we learn that they managed to influence British passport officials to the point of a six-month delay in issuing passports to two children? How is THAT not the larger story?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.